Conflicts on the rise across world after Covid lull - report

The proportion ofthe world engulfed by conflict has grown 65% - equivalent to nearly double the size of India - over the past three years, according to a new report.

- Kaamil Ahmed

Wars and unrest have spread and intensified in Ukraine, Myanmar, the Middle East and in a "conflict corridor," around Africa's Sahel region since 2021, according to the latest Conflict Intensity Index (CII), published by the risk analysts Verisk Maplecroft.

While there was a lull in the levels of conflict globally during the COVID-19 pandemic, experts say there has been a rising trend of violence for at least a decade, while many long-standing crises continue unabated.

Hugo Brennan, a research director at Verisk Maplecroft, said recent conflicts ha Ve had far-reaching impacts on businesses, economic growth and food security, with supply chains disturbed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which endangered grain exports to the Middle East and Africa, and attacks by Houthi rebels from Yemen on Red Sea shipping.