The world is at war.. The Guardian: These are the hotbeds of tension that the West ignores

The world has become more dangerous, a feeling that one often hears in people these days, but is this conclusion really true?

This question was raised by writer Simon Tisdall in his extensive article in the British newspaper The Guardian, in which he reviewed the hotbeds of conflict, such as the disputes between China and Taiwan, Iran, the United States and Israel, which he believes require greater attention.

While some conflicts, such as the wars between Israel and Palestine and between Russia and Ukraine, rightly receive significant media attention, the author considers them to be exceptional cases.

Most conflicts—whether they concern wars and invasions in Sudan and the Congo, gross human rights violations in Afghanistan and Chinese Tibet, guerrilla warfare in Haiti and Colombia, famine in Yemen and Somalia, or political repression in Nicaragua, Belarus, and Serbia—either receive little media coverage, are forgotten, or go unnoticed.

The article discussed in some detail some of those conflicts and wars, which we summarize below:

Congo-Rwanda

The long-running conflict along the eastern border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has made international headlines after the M23 rebel movement seized the city of Goma, the administrative capital of North Kivu province.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame denies UN accusations that he is arming the rebel movement and sending troops across the border into the region, which is rich in minerals such as coltan, which contains minerals in high demand in the West.

Myanmar

The past year has seen growing armed resistance against the military junta that ousted the elected government led by 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The army generals resort to "scorched earth" tactics, including launching indiscriminate air strikes against civilians from the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine State, targeting them with murder, rape, torture and burning, all of which amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the article.

Haiti

Haiti’s latest slide into chaos followed the assassination of its last elected president, Jovenel Moïse, in 2021. Ubiquitous armed gangs, who thrive on violence, extortion and kidnapping, are in control. Analysts say Haiti is now a failed state.

Ethiopia and Somalia

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's rule has been marked by internal conflicts such as a devastating military campaign against the northern Tigray region, and escalating repression and arrests of his opponents in the Amhara region (northwest).

Reports accuse him of backsliding on democracy and stoking tensions with neighbouring Somalia in his bid to gain a Red Sea port in Somaliland, which unilaterally declared independence from the mother country.

Amnesty International says the world is turning a blind eye to all these violations and tensions.

Iran

The Iranian regime, according to Tisdall, faces external challenges, the worst of which is its direct clash with Israel in 2024, and domestic challenges, not the least of which are those it faces from young urban residents who are angry with corruption in official institutions, and with violent repression and inefficiency.

In the past 15 years, Iran has seen three major uprisings, in 2009, 2019 and 2022, according to the Guardian. Middle East analysts are asking: When will the next one come? Or will a full-scale war with Israel come first?

Syria-Türkiye

According to the British newspaper article, the internal security situation in Syria remains precarious amid a national quest for justice, revenge killings, limited targeting of religious minorities, and clashes between Syrian Kurdish forces and Turkish-backed groups along the northern border.

Although the United States, the European Union and the Gulf States welcomed the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime, the author of the article warns that without the new regime headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa receiving better international participation and support, civil war may return again.

Sudan

Media commentators like to refer to Sudan’s current security and humanitarian catastrophe as a “forgotten” war.

Tisdall believes the truth is worse than that, a conflict that has been “not forgotten but mostly ignored” since the chaos erupted in 2023 following fighting that then broke out between the regular army and the Rapid Support Forces.

Afghanistan and Pakistan

Tisdale describes America's abandonment of Afghanistan to the Taliban in 2021 as shameful and politically costly.

Afghanistan's stability is in doubt by the start of 2025, he claims, as the "poorly governed country" is mired in poverty and has fallen prey to "extremist" foreign groups such as the Islamic State-Khorasan Province.

Neighbouring Pakistan also appears highly unstable after a year of political turmoil that saw former Prime Minister Imran Khan jailed and military-backed politician Shehbaz Sharif take over.

Analysts say 2024 has seen a rise in violent militancy involving Baloch separatists and the Pakistani Taliban.

Yemen

Yemen has long been described as the world’s worst humanitarian emergency, and perhaps still is, despite the escalating atrocities in Sudan.

But since Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, world attention has shifted away from Yemen's internal crisis to the Houthi rebels, who have been launching missile attacks on Western ships in the Red Sea and on Israel in support of the people of the Gaza Strip.

Mexico and the United States

Tisdale asserts that US President Donald Trump's "militarization" of his country's border with Mexico, and his "childish" demand to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, are bound to exacerbate the problems already afflicting his southern neighbor.

In this regard, he pointed out that the US Council on Foreign Relations warned last week that “Trump’s reinstatement of his punitive immigration plans would burden overburdened Mexico, threaten regional economic growth, and enrich criminal cartels,” making both countries less secure and less wealthy.

Source: Guardian