A Less Free, Less Safe World

In early February, the Rwandan-backed rebel group M23 captured the city of Goma in North Kivu Province in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). At least 900 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of civilians were forced to flee amid this latest escalation of a decades-long crisis. The conflict has not only eroded civilians’ physical safety and security, but has had—as many violent conflicts do—a wholesale impact on basic rights and freedoms including freedom of movement, property rights, academic freedom, and freedom from economic exploitation. The fighting, which risks quickly spiraling into a complex regional war, is one of dozens of conflicts currently jeopardizing rights, stability, and security around the world.

Armed conflict and other forms of violence not only made the world less safe but drove the 19th consecutive year of decline in global freedom last year, according to Freedom in the World 2025. Today, 20 percent of the world’s population lives in places without even minimal protections from the violence of war, insurgency, crime, and unaccountable security forces.

Ongoing armed conflicts undermined freedoms

Some of the most dramatic declines in freedom in 2024 were due to violent conflict, which not only hollowed out safety and security but contributed to a broader erosion of both political rights and civil liberties.

The Gaza Strip, which is assessed as a separate territory in Freedom in the World, tied for the second-largest score decline globally. Following the deadly October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas, the Israeli military campaign in Gaza killed and forcibly displaced Palestinians on a massive scale, systematically obstructed the delivery of humanitarian aid, and destroyed most farmland and life-sustaining civilian infrastructure. Hamas has also endangered civilians in Gaza, while criminal gangs and armed groups have looted humanitarian convoys that were delivering essential aid to Palestinians. As a result, the Gaza Strip is now one of the least free places in the world, scoring only 2 out of 100 points.

The impact of conflict and violence on global freedom extends beyond the intrinsic degradation of safety and security. Haiti experienced a staggering decline in freedom as escalating attacks by a complex array of heavily armed gangs perpetuated the country’s political crisis. Elections haven’t been held in Haiti since 2016 in part due to the massive levels of gang-related violence, leaving Haitians without the ability to participate in political processes by electing their government or otherwise holding leaders accountable. Ongoing conflict also resulted in the postponement of elections in South Sudan and Ukraine in 2024, where genuine threats of violence prevented contests from being held. The full-scale Russian military invasion of Ukraine and the Kremlin’s efforts to violently depose its democratically elected government remain flagrant violations of Ukrainians’ political rights.

Ethnic and religious minorities were especially vulnerable to brutal acts of violence and other rights abuses in 2024. The junta in Myanmar continued to terrorize the Rohingya ethnic minority by conducting raids in Rakhine State and forcibly recruiting as many as 1,000 Rohingya men and boys to fight under the junta’s conscription law. In Sudan, the civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has caused egregious suffering, mass displacement, and a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. The RSF has been widely condemned for engaging in shocking levels of sexual violence, forced disappearances, and atrocities against non-Arab ethnic groups.

Armed nonstate actors perpetuated violence and fueled crime and terrorism

Violence—as a result of armed conflict or perpetrated by organized criminal groups and mercenaries—not only harmed civilians. It sustained a host of local and cross-border security threats, including extremism and transnational crime.

In the Sahel, armed conflict and a series of coups d’etat have weakened state capacity and provided a haven for violent extremist groups to flourish. Counterterrorism efforts by authoritarian strongmen, junta leaders, and Russian mercenary groups in the region have not only been ineffective but have led to a deepening of authoritarianism. Niger’s civilian government was ousted in 2023 by a military coup army leaders claimed was prompted by deteriorating security. However, insurgent activity continued to intensify in 2024, and Islamist extremist groups in Niger have taken more territory since the junta took power. The arrival of Russian mercenaries in April 2024 did little to address the problem, but rather aided Niger’s junta in consolidating power. The security situation in Mali continued to deteriorate as Islamist militant groups carried out attacks and dealt major blows to Malian troops and allied Russian mercenaries during the year.

Across much of Latin America, criminal groups have managed to develop or join much larger and more sophisticated transnational networks. Cartels that were active in Mexico have since exported drug-smuggling efforts—as well as violent tactics—to other countries in Central and South America. Major outbreaks of gang-related violence in strategic port cities have menaced freedoms in Ecuador, Argentina, and Costa Rica. Gangs and drug syndicates in Colombia and Panama have exploited the region’s migration crisis by orchestrating extortion and human smuggling rackets.

In Myanmar, belligerents operate industrial-scale laboratories to produce and then traffic synthetic drugs across the region, and the ongoing civil war there has severely hampered regional authorities’ efforts to combat this menace. Chinese crime syndicates engaged in human trafficking and forced labor to run sprawling cybercrime centers across Southeast Asia that stole billions of dollars from victims around the world. The proliferation of modern transnational crime networks has escalated the problem of organized crime from a local issue to a global one.

Violence and conflict will require global cooperation to address

Armed conflict and violence perpetrated by nonstate armed groups exacerbated political instability, halted democratic progress, and allowed authoritarianism to flourish in 2024, driving the 19th consecutive year of decline in global freedom. Yet 2024 also saw that the desire for peace and freedom can prevail even in some of the most repressive environments. The toppling of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal dictatorship in Syria is an important reminder that even the most violent, authoritarian systems are not immutable. Peace is more durable when rights and freedoms are respected. In Gaza, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and elsewhere, lasting peace will require assurances for self-determination and human rights for all.

Identifying solutions to the world’s most brutal and intractable conflicts will require meaningful cooperation and creative approaches that respect and protect rights and prioritize both safety and freedom. Multilateral sanctions on individuals and entities affiliated with armed nonstate actors can help cut off material support that perpetuates conflict. Investing in anticorruption mechanisms, judicial reform, and effective public-service delivery will mitigate the political and economic issues that allow violent actors to increase their ranks. Abiding by international law, prosecuting war crimes and human rights violations, and holding those responsible for violence accountable will help to rebuild widespread trust in the law. Democracies have a variety of tools at their disposal—but working together is the key to preserving and upholding freedom, security, and prosperity.