"One civilian was killed every fourteen minutes in 2025" -Security Council Briefing | United Nations

A top UN humanitarian official said “Protecting civilians requires more than expressions of concern. It requires genuine commitment that translates into concrete action.” Addressing the Security Council, Edem Wosornu, Director of the Crisis Response Division of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that one civilian was killed approximately every fourteen minutes in 2025. These are only the deaths the United Nations could document across twenty armed conflicts. We know the real toll is far higher, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Sudan, in Ukraine, in the occupied Palestinian territory, and beyond. She said, “These patterns are the result of choices. The choice by parties to conflict to ignore their obligations to protect civilians, and too often, to target them. The choice by some to adopt increasingly permissive interpretations of international humanitarian law, hollowing out the very rules designed to protect civilians during war.” She also said, “There is another path. Other choices are possible. They must be made. They must be made because protecting civilians, ensuring respect for the law, and ending impunity is not only a legal and moral obligation. It is also in Member States’ shared interest. In a world where conflicts are rising and rearmament is accelerating; unrestrained force and unapologetic brutality do not make anyone safer. They put everyone at risk. Those who believe war will never reach them, their families, or their people are living in a dangerous illusion.”


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