NEW YORK: One civilian was killed approximately every 14 minutes in armed conflicts worldwide last year, the UN humanitarian chief told the Security Council on Wednesday, warning about the accelerating human cost of modern warfare.
Speaking on behalf of Tom Fletcher during an open debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, Edem Wosornu, director of the Crisis Response Division at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told the council that the numbers are only the deaths the UN could document across 20 armed conflicts, adding: “We know the real toll is far higher.â€
She cited the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Ukraine and Palestine as among the conflicts driving the mounting civilian death toll.
Wosornu described civilians being killed in homes, markets, schools and while fleeing for safety, warning that in many cases they were deliberately targeted rather than accidentally harmed.
“All too often they are not collateral damage. They are the target,†she said, painting a grim picture of the state of civilian protection globally.
The UN recorded more than 1,350 attacks on medical care across 18 conflicts in 2025. Hospitals and ambulances were struck, while doctors and nurses faced killings, detention, intimidation and criminalization.
Conflict-driven hunger also worsened dramatically. Wosornu said 147 million people faced acute food insecurity last year, largely because of war.
Two famines were confirmed in 2025, which she said were caused not by a lack of food supplies but by the conduct of hostilities, siege tactics and restrictions on humanitarian access. “Food has become a weapon of war,†she told council members.
Wosornu also highlighted widespread sexual violence and the growing vulnerability of children in conflict zones.
More than 9,300 cases of conflict-related sexual violence were reported by the UN last year, most involving women and girls, though officials acknowledged the actual number is likely much higher.
Children continue to be abducted, recruited into armed groups, and killed or maimed by explosive weapons used in densely populated areas, Wosornu said.
She also warned that social media and digital communication technologies are increasingly being exploited to recruit and extort children.
Journalists and aid workers are also coming under increasing attack. Wosornu said 186 journalists were killed while covering conflicts between 2022 and 2025, a 67 percent increase compared to the previous four-year period.
She added that 144 humanitarian workers have already been killed, injured, abducted or detained in 2026 while attempting to deliver aid.
She also warned that rapidly advancing military technologies are compounding the crisis. The use of armed drones across conflicts increased by 4,000 percent between 2020 and 2024, Wosornu said, while artificial intelligence and automated systems are accelerating the speed and reach of violence.
“The impact is not only physical,†she said. “It is psychological: constant fear, constant disruption.â€
The worsening protection crisis was not inevitable but “the result of choices,†she said, accusing parties to conflicts of ignoring international humanitarian law, embracing impunity and prioritizing military objectives over civilian lives.
She called on UN member states to recommit to the principles of the UN Charter and international humanitarian law, urging governments to halt weapons transfers where there is a clear risk that they will be used against civilians, protect humanitarian workers and journalists, and maintain meaningful human control over the use of force and AI.
“Protecting civilians in armed conflict is not charity,†Wosornu said. “It is the minimum that humanity and civilization require.â€
