But how many conflicts are we talking about? Because, beyond the current media coverage, there are many active conflicts, some of them forgotten, ravaging the planet. Focusing on our Foundation's area of interest, the Middle East and the Mediterranean, let us take a brief look at some of them.
In the middle of the Mediterranean, on the island of Cyprus, one of the most neglected conflicts has been raging: the Turkish occupation of 36% of the island, specifically the northern part, since 1974. The creation in 1983 of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus - a state recognised only by Turkey and contrary to numerous UN resolutions - remains an obstacle to a solution to the conflict, envisaged through the reunification of the island. Various proposals have been rejected, and the 2004 referendum gave a negative result (66.7% votes against) to reunification.
Moving eastwards, in the Middle East, to the mediatic and constant conflict between Israel and Palestine (in a new, extremely harsh and serious phase since October 2023) we must add the never-ending civil war in Syria, which is far from the headlines it grabbed a decade ago and is now at a stalemate: with no hope for the fall of the regime, which has regained control of most of the country and is once again recognised by some neighbours, and no peace talks.
Next door, Iraq remains under US tutelage, plagued by corruption and an unrelenting insurgency that takes the form of various paramilitary groups, such as Quwwat al-Hashd ash-Sha'bi (Popular Mobilisation Forces), or Muqawamat al-Islamiyat fi al-Iraq (Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella organisation under which factions such as Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujiq al-Nujiq are grouped, or Muqawamat al-Islamiyat fi al-Iraq (Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella organisation under which factions such as Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba or Kata'ib Hezbollah, among others, are grouped), which continue to harass the US presence both in Iraq and in neighbouring Syria and Jordan.
To the west, Egypt continues to grapple with Wilayat Sina', the local Islamic State franchise, which continues to attack military and civilian infrastructure in the Sinai Peninsula, where it has destroyed dozens of schools in recent years, prompting even the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to recently (June 2024) recognise the plight of Sinai's children and call for international access to the north of the region.
In neighbouring Libya, which since the fall of Gaddafi in 2011 has been plunged into constant political turmoil and armed violence, the coexistence of parallel rival governments leads to overlapping conflicts involving several armed groups and foreign powers. The Libyan puzzle is worrying international bodies such as UNSMIL (United Nations Support Mission in Libya) and the European Union Delegation to Libya, which in August raised the alarm that Libya could be heading towards a new civil war.
We end this sombre review - leaving aside other regional conflicts such as those in Yemen, South Sudan or, further afield, in the Sahel region - in the hope that we will not have to write about these issues again, and equally confident that we will be able to do our part (as individuals, but also as societies) to achieve the goal of peace.