![]() There is often no safe water to drink, electricity to power homes and businesses, or health services to vaccinate or cure disease. When wars are fought in cities, the vital infrastructure that makes communities function is damaged or destroyed. Out of the 65 million people who are forcibly displaced, 75% live in urban areas. Two thirds of the global population is predicted to be living in cities by 2030, and urban centres are under pressure as they struggle to absorb this rapid increase.Īt the same time, armed conflicts are increasingly fought in urban environments with some 50 million people bearing the brunt of the consequences.Ī staggering 96% of urban growth is expected to take place in developing countries in cities that already face fragility. ![]() The more we can do to understand urbanisation and its challenges and complexities, the better we can adjust our humanitarian response. Wars have moved into the lives, cities and homes of ordinary people in a more vicious way than ever before. Today's armed conflicts look quite different: city centers and residential areas have become the battlefields of our time. Cities could be besieged or sacked but fighting rarely took place on the streets. We know that many of the world's conflict-affected cities - from Aleppo to Donetsk, from Gaza to Mogadishu, from Aden to Tripoli – are struggling to survive.įor centuries, wars were predominantly fought across vast battlefields, pitting thousands of men, large army corps and heavy weaponry against each other in open fields. This keynote speech was given by ICRC President Peter Maurer as part of the ICRC's Research and Debate cycle on "War in Cities", 4 April 2017 at the Graduate Institute, Geneva. ![]() The destructive force of war in cities, the suffering it causes and the impact on people's lives and livelihoods – is a major concern of the ICRC in many countries in which we work.
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