Top Ten Countries Most Affected by War and Armed Conflict in April 2026

Sudan remains a full-scale civil war with nationwide humanitarian collapse, mass displacement, repeated attacks on civilians and health systems, and ongoing fighting across Darfur, Kordofan, and other regions.

No other current conflict combines this level of displacement, hunger, health-system destruction, and sustained multi-front warfare more clearly right now. UN agencies describe it as the world’s largest humanitarian and displacement crisis, with roughly 34 million people needing aid and about 14 million displaced.

The Gaza war remains one of the world’s starkest cases of active conflict combined with catastrophic civilian deprivation.

Gaza’s concentration of displacement, food insecurity, damaged health infrastructure, and near-total aid dependence puts it in the very top tier globally, even though the geographic footprint is smaller than Sudan’s. ACAPS reports that all Gazans need aid and all face at least crisis-level food insecurity, with a large share facing catastrophe-level conditions.

Ukraine remains a major interstate war with ongoing nationwide missile and drone strikes, entrenched front-line fighting, and severe civilian and infrastructure impacts.

Ukraine’s humanitarian burden is still enormous, but it ranks below Sudan and Gaza because overall state functionality is more intact and civilian deprivation is less universally catastrophic. Even so, 12.7 million people need humanitarian assistance, millions remain displaced, and large-scale attacks continued through March and April 2026.

Eastern DRC remains a major armed-conflict zone, especially with M23 offensives, mass displacement, food insecurity, and repeated civilian harm.

It sits just behind Ukraine because the conflict is less nationally uniform, but the eastern crisis is extraordinarily severe and has recently intensified through the capture of major cities and renewed destabilization. Humanitarian need and displacement remain among the highest in the world.

Myanmar remains in nationwide civil war, with armed conflict across multiple regions, very large displacement, and continuing deterioration in civilian security.

It ranks above Yemen and the lower tier because the conflict is broad, active, and deeply embedded in national political breakdown. Nearly 20 million people need assistance, and displacement inside and beyond Myanmar has continued to grow.

Yemen remains one of the world’s worst long-running conflict-driven humanitarian emergencies, with renewed escalation risks and crippled systems.

It ranks below Myanmar because current battlefield intensity is lower than in the top five, but its humanitarian severity remains immense. WHO and OCHA reporting show that tens of millions still require assistance or protection, and health-system functionality remains badly impaired.

Haiti qualifies because organized armed violence has gone well beyond ordinary criminality and now materially disrupts national life, displacement, food access, and governance.

It ranks above South Sudan, Syria, and Burkina Faso because the present deterioration is unusually acute, especially in displacement and hunger, even though it is not a conventional civil war. The violence now controls or shapes major parts of Port-au-Prince and drives one of the hemisphere’s fastest-worsening crises.

South Sudan remains affected by large-scale armed violence, displacement, and severe humanitarian fragility.

It is very close to Haiti. I rank it slightly lower because the present crisis is a mixture of conflict, political fragility, climate shocks, and deprivation rather than one sharply dominant national war front, though the conflict burden is still grave.

Syria remains a major conflict-affected country with huge ongoing humanitarian need, millions still displaced, and renewed clashes and spillover risks.

Syria’s current humanitarian burden is still enormous, but it ranks below Haiti and South Sudan because the present conflict intensity is lower than during its peak years and lower than the conflicts ranked above it. Still, millions remain displaced and dependent, and the crisis is far from resolved.

Burkina Faso remains one of the world’s most severe conflict-driven displacement and siege crises, with major territorial insecurity and repeated civilian harm.

It takes the final slot over Somalia because the armed-conflict dimension is more clearly central to the country’s current humanitarian burden, including large-scale displacement, extensive territory affected by armed groups, and prolonged siege conditions. The margin over Somalia is real but narrow.