There have been more than 35 in Africa:in Burkina Faso,Cameroon,the Central African Republic (CAR),the Democratic Republic of the Congo,Ethiopia,Mali,Mozambique,Nigeria,Senegal,Somalia,South Sudan and Sudan,with Western powers and/or neighbouring countries intervening in Burkina Faso,Mali,Mozambique,Nigeria and Somalia.
Twenty-one armed conflicts have been identified in Afghanistan,India,Myanmar,Pakistan and the Philippines,with two international armed conflicts,between India and Pakistan,and between India and China.
There have been seven conflicts in Europe:the war between Russia and Ukraine,as well as Russia currently occupying Crimea (Ukraine),Transdniestria (Moldova),as well as South Ossetia and Abkhazia (Georgia),while there are two conflicts within Ukraine,in the self-proclaimed “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine,and Azerbaijan is reclaiming parts of Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia.
With the six in Latin America,within Mexico and Colombia,some involve drug cartels organised to military strength. And we should also be counting those countries buying into some of these conflicts.
To see all these on a map is horrific,with each representing many deaths andcountless refugees,becoming homeless and desperately trying to find refuge in countries which are feeling overwhelmed and defensively closing borders. Countries not directly affected are becoming destabilised,both because of this,and because of internal conflicts between residents originating from countries,or regions,or religions in conflict with each other.
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Just look at what is happening in Australia,withsupporters of Israel and of Palestine,understandably antagonistic to each other,and at risk from each other,right here.
Looking at that,let us take in the wisdom of 97-year-old Holocaust survivorSarah Saaroni (one of Israel’s original Jewish settlers before moving to Australia) regarding the tragedy unfolding on both sides. Her main message,recently expressed in this masthead,is that “in a war,nobody wins”,the real victims are “the innocent people on both sides ...[They] always lose the most”,and “everyone has the right to live where they want to live,and how they would like to live,in peace”.
So,are we all just going to sit on our hands and do nothing while the planet is blowing up around us,here,there and everywhere? Or can the women and the children of the world – allied with all the good men that there are – come together and cry enough? Before it is all too late.