The Forgotten Wars of 2024 and 2025
March 24, 2026 · Frisian News
While the world watched Ukraine and the Middle East, armed conflicts in Africa, Asia, and Latin America killed thousands with barely a mention in Western news. Media silence does not mean these wars matter less.
In March 2025, fighting between rival factions in the Democratic Republic of Congo killed over 500 people in a single week. The international press printed nothing. Four months earlier, violence between Fulani herders and farming communities in Mali claimed 1,200 lives in just three months. Western outlets that had sent crews to cover protests in New York found time for neither story. These deaths happened. They matter. Yet the news cycle moved on.
The pattern repeats across continents. Fighting in Myanmar between the military junta and armed groups has displaced hundreds of thousands since late 2023. A low-grade war in the Philippines pits government troops against communist insurgents. Colombia battles drug cartels that control entire regions. None of these conflicts lack brutality or scale, but all share one thing: they do not fit the geopolitical narrative that Western editors have chosen to push.
Media attention follows power, not suffering. Ukraine matters because it involves a NATO member and Russia. Gaza matters because it sits at the intersection of American power, oil, and ideology. But when Africans kill Africans, when Asians fight Asians, when Latin Americans destroy their own towns, the calculation changes. These wars lack the starring role that great power competition demands. They bore audiences trained to see world events through the lens of American interest.
The body count proves the point. Estimates suggest that conflicts in Africa and Asia killed more people in 2024 and 2025 combined than either Ukraine or Gaza did in those same years. Yet news coverage split itself unequally. The forgotten wars received a fraction of the coverage, a fraction of the aid, a fraction of the diplomatic effort. Small countries with no strategic value to major powers learn that their dead do not count as news.
This indifference carries consequences. Conflicts that attract no cameras tend to fester and grow. Warlords find it easier to recruit when the world ignores them. Famine spreads in wars that nobody watches. When the West decides a conflict does not matter, the combatants lose incentive to negotiate, because no one will pressure them to stop. The forgotten wars will not stay forgotten. They will simply grow until they cost too much to ignore.
Yn maart 2025 dieden gefechten tusken rivalisearjende faksjes yn de Demokraatyske Republyk Kongo mear as 500 minsken yn ien wike. De ynternaasjonale parse skreau der neat oer. Fjouwer moannen earder eisten gefechten tusken Fulani-hearders en bouwskappe yn Mali 1.200 libben yn mar trije moannen. Westerse media dy't crews nei protestesten yn New York stjoerd hiene fûnen tiid foar gjin fan beide ferhalen. Dizze deaden beurren. Se telle. Dochs gie de nijs-syklus fierder.
It patroan herhellet him oer kontinenten. Gefechten yn Myanmar tusken it militêre junta en bewapene groepen hawwe sûnt ein 2023 hûnderttûsenen ferpleatst makke. In leech-yntinsiteit oarloch op de Filipijnen set regjeringstroepen tsjin kommunistyske opstielers. Kolombia feart tsjin drûgskartels dy't heule regio's kontrolearje. Gjin fan dizze konflikten bewarket wreedheid of skaal, mar alle diele ien ding: se passe net yn it geopolitike ferhaal dat westerse redaksjes keazen hawwe út te dragen.
Mediaomtinken folget macht, net lijen. Oekraïne telt omdat it in NATO-lid en Ruslân bitreft. Gaza telt omdat it op it krúspunt lit fan Amerikaanske macht, olje en ideology. Mar as Afrikainen Afrikainen deade, as Aziaten tsjin Aziaten fechtse, as Latyn-Amerikanen har eigen stêden fermiele, feroaret de berekkening. Dizze oarlogen wonteret de haadrol dy't grut-machtkompetysje easkje. Se ferfiele publyk dat traind is wrâldgeboerenissen troch de lens fan Amerikaansk belang te sjen.
It doadetal bewiist it punt. Skatlings suggerearje dat konflikten yn Afrika en Azië yn 2024 en 2025 tegearre mear minsken deaden as Oekraïne of Gaza yn deselde jierren deaden. Dochs splitste nisjsdekking him ûngelyk. De ferjitene oarlogen ûntfongen in fraksje fan de dekking, in fraksje fan de help, in fraksje fan de diplomaatyske spanning. Lytse lannen sûnder strategyske wearde foar grutte machten leare dat har deaden net as nijs telle.
Dizze ûnferskillichheid hat gefolch. Konflikten dy't gjin kamera's aantrekke ferjitere en groeiie. Krjichsheren rekruttearje makliker as de wrâld har negearet. Hongersnot ferspriede him yn oarlogen dy't nimmen op let. As it Westen bepale dat in konflikt net telt, ferleze striidende partijen prikkels om te ûnderhannelje, omdat nimmen har dwinke sille te hâlden. De ferjitene oarlogen sille net ferjitene bliuwe. Se groeiie ienfâldichwei oant se te djoer binne om te negearjen.
Published March 24, 2026 · Frisian News · Ljouwert, Fryslân