Merve Aydogan
20 May 2026•Update: 20 May 2026
The UN warned Wednesday that civilians continue to pay a devastating price in conflicts around the world, with one civilian killed approximately every 14 minutes last year in armed conflicts monitored by the UN.
«One civilian was killed approximately every 14 minutes in 2025,» Edem Wosornu, director of the operations and advocacy division at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told the Security Council during an open debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict.
«These are only the deaths the United Nations could document across twenty armed conflicts,» she said, adding: «We know the real toll is far higher, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Sudan, in Ukraine, in the occupied Palestinian territory, and beyond.»
Warning that civilians, health workers, and aid personnel are increasingly under attack, Wosornu said that 10 years after the Security Council adopted Resolution 2286 on protecting medical care in war, «the situation has only gotten worse.»
«In 2025, the United Nations recorded more than 1,350 attacks on medical care across 18 conflicts. Hospitals and ambulances were hit. Medical personnel were killed, detained, intimidated, or criminalized simply for doing their jobs,» she said.
Noting the mounting dangers faced by humanitarian workers, Wosornu said: «Already in 2026, 144 humanitarian workers have been reported killed, injured, abducted, or detained as they try to serve those in need.»
Pointing to the danger posed by emerging technologies to conflicts, she said that «armed drones and artificial intelligence are accelerating the pace and reach of violence, often in densely populated areas,» noting that «the use of drones increased by 4,000% from 2020 to 2024 across conflicts.»
«None of this is inevitable. These patterns are the result of choices,» she added.
Cautioning against growing militarization and impunity, Wosornu said: «In a world where conflicts are rising, and rearmament is accelerating, unrestrained force and unapologetic brutality do not make anyone safer. They put everyone at risk.»
«Those who believe war will never reach them, their families, or their people are living in a dangerous illusion,» she added.
«War does not respect borders. It does not respect privileges,» she said.
Stressing that «protecting civilians in armed conflict is not charity,» Wosornu said: «It is the minimum that humanity and civilization require.»
Echoing those concerns, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross Mirjana Spoljaric warned that violations of international humanitarian law are becoming normalized across conflict zones.
«We can no longer pretend that what we are witnessing across war zones is in accordance with the law,» she told the Council.
«When leaders direct their militaries to act without restraint, when they label their enemies as sub-human, and when they threaten entire populations, they do more than incite war crimes.»
«They threaten to destroy the moral foundations of what it means to be human,» Spoljaric warned.
She also said access for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to detainees is increasingly being blocked.
«Despite states’ obligation to allow ICRC visits, our access is denied or severely restricted in far too many instances today,» she said, calling it «a dangerous erosion of the norms that risks harming not only people behind bars today, but also tomorrow.»
