Wars are no less frequent today than they used to be in the past decades as some statistics suggest, but appear to be so because fewer people are killed in violent conflicts thanks to modern medical technology, according to a researcher studying strife-torn regions of the globe.

“The problem of statistics is that they almost exclusively refer to the death toll,” Prof Dennis Dijkzeul of the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict at Germany’s Ruhr University Bochum said. “Thanks to modern medical technology, the number of people dying from their injuries is much lower than it used to be twenty years ago.”

Instead, the number of invalids and traumatised people has risen in the same manner as that of internally displaced people and refugees, but are not included in statistics, according to Prof. Dijkzeul.

Accordingly, war has become less fatal today, but that does not mean that it takes place less, Prof. Dijkzeul argues.

In other words: statistics no longer reflect the suffering caused by war.

Academics like Prof. Dijkzeul and his colleagues conduct research, in order to gain a better understanding of the causes and effects of the most recent wars.

No matter which title is given to the suffering of the people affected – they all need help regardless, the researchers argued.

This task is assumed to a great extent by humanitarian aid organisations such as the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). In his role as Professor for Organisational and Conflict Research, Prof. Dijkzeul studies their functions in great detail.

“There are hundreds of relief organisations,” Prof. Dijkzeul, originally from the Netherlands, said in interview with the German-language RUBIN magazine.“Some provide medical aid, others take primarily care of water and sanitation, while others still supply food for the needy,”

He himself used to travel to troubled regions for research purposes, mainly to the Democratic Republic of Congo at the border of Rwanda in East Africa. That’s where he learned how important the close exchange between the individual actors is.

“If we understand the strategies of the conflict parties and the survival strategies of the local populace, we can provide help much more efficiently,” Prof. Dijkzeul concluded.

[Photo Credit: Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)]