For more than a week, the eyes of the world have been on Ukraine as Russia continues its military offensive through the country.
But Ukraine isn’t the only part of the world in the midst of an armed conflict. Some countries, such as Somalia and Syria, have experienced military conflicts spanning more than a decade. In other regions, worsening tensions have led some observers to fear that a war could break out at some point in the future.
Here are some other regions that are currently at war or could eventually end up there due to ongoing tensions.
SYRIA
For almost 11 years, Syria has been caught in a civil war between its government, the Syrian opposition and ISIS. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights places the death toll between 494,438 and 606,000.
Bashar al-Assad’s government has also been supported by Vladimir Putin, who has deployed Russian airstrikes against Syrian rebels and ISIS since 2015.
The conflict in Syria has also created a refugee crisis, as 6.8 million Syrians have been forced to flee their country. But as neighbouring European countries prepare to welcome the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees fleeing, some have pointed out the double standards in how refugees from the Middle East have been treated.
CHINA AND TAIWAN
While Taiwan and Mainland China have been controlled by separate governments since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, Beijing has long contended that Taiwan is a breakaway province of the People’s Republic of China.
In recent years, tensions between the two sides have grxjmtzywown with China ramping up military pressure and Taiwan asserting sovereignty. Some observers have expressed fears that Beijing could one day initiate an invasion of Taiwan, similar to Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
"There is a great sense of insecurity when you talk to the folks in Taiwan about the impact of invasion of Ukraine and what this could mean for them," said Tina J. Park, executive director for the Canadian Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Monday.
Taiwanese authorities have called it "inappropriate" to " link Ukraine’s situation with Taiwan’s, disturbing people’s morale." However, If Russia’s invasion of Ukraine turns out to be successful, Park believes that could set "a very dangerous precedent for what other authoritarian regimes take away as lessons."
"China is always interested in exerting more influence over Taiwan," Park said. "China has been historically interested in that, and Taiwan has been very fearful of potential annexation."
YEMEN
The Yemen Civil War has gone on for over seven years, killing more than 377,000, according to the UN.
Since 2014, the Yemeni government led by Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi has been at war against the Houthi movement, a predominately Shia Muslim political group in Yemen. In 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its allies started a bombing campaign in the country to support the Hadi government.
The conflict in Yemen is also part of the proxy battle between Saudi Arabia and Iran, although it remains unclear to what extent Iran is supporting the Houthis.
The Saudi intervention has brought widespread condemnation over the high number of civilian casualties. Nearly 25,000 civilians have died in Yemen from the Saudi-led campaign.
The U.S. has also been providing logistical, intelligence and arms support for the Saudi-led coalition, although U.S. President Joe Biden promised in January 2021 that Washington would stop providing arms to the Saudis.
Canada has been shipping light-armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia as well, but it’s unclear if these vehicles have been used in the Yemen conflict.
AFGHANISTAN
The Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, coinciding with the withdrawal of American troops and the end of the U.S. mission in the country.
It only took the Taliban three months to take over the whole country, as the Afghan military failed to push back against the offensive without U.S. support.
Despite the Taliban’s return to power, war continues to be a reality in Afghanistan. For the past seven years, the Taliban has been at war with ISIS-K, the ISIS affiliate based in Central Asia. ISIS-K was also involved in a suicide bombing at the Kabul airport in August 2021, when evacuation efforts were taking place.
Some Afghans who remain loyal to the previous government have organized under the National Resistance Front and taken up arms against the Taliban. These militias, largely based in Afghanistan’s Panjshir region, have regularly engaged in clashes with the Taliban ever since they came into power.
INDIA, PAKISTAN AND CHINA
Both India and Pakistan claim the region of Kashmir in the Himalayas as part of their territory. Since 1947, the two sides have engaged in wars, skirmishes and military standoffs over control of the territory. Currently, approximately half of the territory is controlled by India while the other half is controlled by Pakistan.
Since the late 1980s, militant groups supported by Pakistan have also been engaged in conflict with Indian police and military in the parts of Kashmir administered by India. Attacks from militant groups, as well as the Indian government’s counter-insurgency operations, have resulted in thousands of civilian deaths.
India has also been engaged in border disputes with China in the same region. Since 2020, Indian and Chinese troops have engaged in skirmishes near Tibet and India’s Ladakh region, located next to Kashmir.
However, instead of gun battles, these skirmishes have generally been fought with fists, rocks, barbed wire and melee weapons. This is because in 1996, the two nuclear states signed a treaty agreeing to not use firearms during border disputes.
Pakistan resolved its border disputes with China in 1963 and since then, the two nations have shared close economic and military ties.
SOMALIA
Somalia has been in a civil war between governments and rebel groups since 1991, but the most recent phase of the war began in 2006 with the rise of al-Shabaab, an affiliate of al Qaeda.
Hundreds of thousands of Somalis have died due to the fighting as well as the famine that ensued. The UN High Commission for Refugees estimates that 1.5 million Somalis have also been internally displaced.
Around 700 U.S. troops had also been actively involved in the conflict, launching airstrikes and carrying out raids against al-Shabab and other allied militant groups. But in late 2020, then-U.S. president Donald Trump announced that nearly all American troops would withdraw from the country. Despite the withdrawal, which was completed in January 2021, U.S. forces have continued to carry out occasional airstrikes against al-Shabab.
ETHIOPIA
Since November 2020, the Ethiopian government has been at war with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), an ethnonationalist paramilitary group and political party that governs the region of Tigray in northern Ethiopia.
Between 1991 and 2018, the TPLF had been a powerful part of Ethiopia’s governing coalition. But in 2018, Abiy Ahmed became Ethiopia’s prime minister, putting the TPLF in opposition.
One of the first things that Abiy did as prime minister was sign a peace treaty with Eritrea, which had been an adversary of the TPLF. Tensions between the Ethiopian government and the TPLF came to a head after Abiy postponed the 2020 elections, citing the COVID-19 pandemic, and the TPLF retreated back to Tigray. That’s when Tigrayan forces attacked an Ethiopian military base, and fighting has continued since then.
The UN says over two million people have in northern Ethiopia have been displaced because of the conflict. UN investigators last November said that there are "reasonable grounds to believe that all parties" of the war are committing war crimes, citing widespread reports of rapes, looting of properties and ethnic-based attacks.
ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES
The United Nations and much of the international community, including Canada, consider the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights to be under Israeli occupation. In the Palestinian territories, Israel imposes strict limits on the movement of Palestinians as well as the flow of goods and services.
Israel has regularly exchanged rocket fire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip since the militant group came into power in 2006. The most recent outbreak of violence came after Hamas launched rockets into Israel in May 2021, as Israel’s Supreme Court was expected to deliver a ruling on whether to evict Palestinian families from the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
While casualties in Israel have been minimal, thanks in large part to Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system, the UN reported that 256 people in Gaza were killed in the May 2021 conflict, 128 being civilians.
Human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International say that Israel routinely uses "discriminatory force" to crack down on Palestinian protesters in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Palestinians have been subjected to violence and terror from Jewish Israeli settlers in the West Bank, violence towards which human rights groups say that Israel ignores. Canada and the international community also consider the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to be a violation of international law.
MYANMAR
In February 2021, the Myanmar military staged a coup d’état, resulting in the ousting and arrest of Sate Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.
That led to mass protests against the coup along with the start of an insurgency against the military junta. The pro-democracy government-in-exile as well as ethnic paramilitary groups, like the Kachin Independence Army and the Karen National Liberation Army, have engaged in increasingly violent clashes with the military.
The death toll from the armed conflict is unclear, but the UN says that number of deaths is "in the thousands." In a report published in February, the human rights group Foritfy Rights said the Myanmar military has massacred civilians, used human shields and other committed other war crimes throughout the conflict.
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
Bosnia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1992, triggering a war that left more than 100,000 people dead. Since then, the country has comprised two entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republic of Srpska. The presidency of the country is also shared by three people representing the three main ethnic groups — Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats.
However, tensions within Bosnia have re-emerged as Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, who serves as the Serb member of the presidency, has been pursuing an increasingly secessionist and nationalist agenda.
The U.S. imposed sanctions against Dodik in January, accusing him of "corrupt activities" that threaten to destabilize the region. The EU has vowed to avert the possible breakup of Bosnia and is also considering sanctions against Dodik.
ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN
Armenia and Azerbaijan have long been engaged in conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway region comprised of mostly ethnic Armenians that is internationally recognized as a part of Azerbaijan.
The two countries had both been Soviet republics. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh declared independence and sought to join the new state of Armenia. Azerbaijan refused to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence, resulting in a war that lasted from 1988 to 1994.
After a ceasefire agreement was signed, Armenia retained control of the Azerbaijani territories around Nagorno-Karabakh. But in September 2020, fighting broke out again after Azerbaijan sought to reclaim some of the territories held by Armenia.
A second ceasefire agreement brokered by Russia was reached in November 2020. Armenia agreed to withdraw its forces in the Azerbaijani territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, while Russian peacekeepers were deployed to the region.
Even after the ceasefire, Armenia and Azerbaijan have continued to engage in occasional border skirmishes.
RELATED IMAGESview larger image
Taliban border fighters take part in a training exercise after a three-week training program in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province, southwestern, Afghanistan, Monday, Oct. 25, 2021. (AP Photo/Abdul Khaliq)
Syrian Democratic soldier keeps watch by the prison that was attacked by the Islamic Stete militants in Hassakeh, Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
