WAR AND CONFLICT

GROUP – III

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Outline

• DEFINITIONS

• MAGNITUDE

• CAUSES

• IMPACTS

• THE ROLE OF PUBLIC HEALTH

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 WAR

• A large scale armed conflict between states, governments, societies or paramilitary

groups such as mercenaries, insurgents ,and militants. It is generally characterized
by extreme violence, aggression, destruction and mortality using regular or
irregular forces

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 CONFLICT

• A clash or disagreement, often violent, between two opposing groups of people. Conflict
ranges from a miner incident to full-blown war

• War is conflict of high intensity, but not all conflict is termed as a war

• Of the past 3,400 years, humans have been entirely at peace for 268 of them, or just 8
percent of recorded history.

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 Types of Warfare

Conventional warfare: War between states in which nuclear, biological or chemical

weapons are not used
 ‘‘field of battle’’.

Total war: is warfare that is not restricted to purely legitimate military target, and
can result in massive civilian or other non-combatant suffering and casualties

Nuclear warfare: A warfare in which nuclear weapons are the primary or major
method of achieving capitulation
 ‘‘virtual wars’’
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 Types of Warfare . . .

Biological warfare (Germ warfare): The use of weaponized biological toxins or

infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses and fungi

E.g - Anthrax, smallpox, etc.

Chemical warfare: The use of weaponized chemicals in combat. Poison gas was
used during world war II, causing over a million casualties

E.g - Sarin gas

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 MAGNITUDE

• The magnitude of a war is best described by:

• The number of casualties

• The number of military force and type of weapons involved

• The humanitarian crisis resulting from that war

• About 310, 000 people died from war-related injuries in 2000

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• Since the Second World War, there have been a total of 190 armed conflicts, only a quarter of
which were between states with modern-day conflicts increasing within rather than between
states

• Estimated totals of conflict-related deaths per century

• 16th: 1.6 million

• 17th: 6.1 million

• 18th: 7.0 million

• 19th: 19.4 million

• 20th: 109.7 million

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 World war II

 The biggest war that happened in this world is the second world war. More than thirty countries
were involved and more than 300 million soldiers took part in combat.

 It was the deadliest and most destructive war, in which an estimated 70-85 million people, or about
3% of the 1940 world population perished.

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 Yugoslav wars

• The Yugoslav war took place from 1991 to 2001, lasting for 10 years. The war resulted in the breakup of
the former Yugoslavia and the formation of independent states like Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia
Herzegovina and others.

• At least 130,000 people lost their lives.

• The wars produced about 2.4 million refugees and an additional 2 million internally displaced persons.

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 The Syrian civil war

 Started in 2011 and continued to present time. The Syrian civil war is an ongoing multisided civil war fought
between the government and forces opposing both the Syrian government and each other.

 As a result of the war more than 3.8 million people became refugees, mainly in neighboring countries like
Turkey and Lebanon.

 Around 10 million ,close to half the population, are believed to be internally displaced

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Yemeni civil war

• An ongoing multisided conflict between different factors starting from 2014. A dire humanitarian
situation was reported in 2015 one year after the start of the war, in which more than 10 million
Yemenis didn’t have enough food to eat and over 13 million civilians were left without access to
clean water.

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Ethio-Eritrean war

• The war took place from 1998-2000, at different battle grounds; Badime, Torena,
Burie etc. The number of life lost is estimated to be around 70,000.

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CAUSES OF WAR AND CONFLICT

• There is rarely one single and clear cause of conflict or war, the reasons are usually numerous and
complicated.

1. Economic gain

- when one country tries to take another countries wealth

- pre industrial era – gold, silver , livestock

- modern – oil, mineral

- future – water, food

eg – Finnish- soviet war (1939-1940)

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CAUSES OF WAR AND CONFLICT . . .

2. Territorial
- to conquer more land for living space, agriculture or other purpose

- As a buffer zone

- Eg – Mexican-American war (1846-1848)

3. Religious
- deep rooted, re- emerging characteristics

- Usually linked to nationalism or revenge

- Eg, The Crusade ( 1095 -1291)

The second sudanse civil war

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CAUSES OF WAR AND CONFLICT . . .

4. Nationalism

- Attempting to prove that one’s country is superior by violent or subjugation

- Usually related to imperialism and racism

- Eg – WWI (1914 -1918)

5. Revenge

- Seeking to punish, readdress a grievance or strick back for previous attack

- Usually related to nationalism

- Can lead to an endless chain

- Eg – WWII ( 1939 – 1945) war and conflict 18

 CAUSES OF WAR AND CONFLICT . . .

6. civil war

- When there is sharp internal disagreement within a country.

- Could be about power, governance , people’s right or by separatist groups to form their own
independent country.

- Eg – Korean war ( 1950 – 1953)

7. Revolution

- When a large section of the population revolts against the ruling person or group

- Reasons could be dissatisfaction on the leadership, economic hardship, injustice

- Eg – Haitian war (1791 – 1804)

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CAUSES OF WAR AND CONFLICT . . .

8. Defense

- Not an attack, fighting purely on defensive capacity

- Controversial

- “ we are attacking them before the inevitable attack us”

- Eg – Iraq conflict ( 2003 – present )

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 THE SOCIA, ECONOMIC AND HEALTH IMPACT OF WAR
AND CONFLICT

• War causes a widespread direct and indirect impacts on the population and the environment that
can have short term and long term consequences.

• The main social impacts of war and conflict include:

 Loss of life:- Combatant’s and civilian’s lives are lost in war as a direct casualties.

 War injuries:-that result in disability.

 Displacement or forced migration:- resulting in cross border refugees and internally

displaced persons.

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Social impacts of war and conflict ….

 Women and girls suffer disproportionately during and after war, as

existing inequalities were magnified and social networks broken-down,
making them more vulnerable to sexual violence and exploitation

Women end up raising children on their own

Children lose their parents and become orphans

 The education system is affected and children are not able to go to school

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The economic impact of war and conflict


The economy may suffer devastating impacts during and after a time of war

Everyday activities of a community or a country are disrupted and property may be damaged.


People become misplaced, hence, they can not continue to work or keep their business open. Employees also lose their job.


Destruction of infrastructure can create a catastrophic impact on transportation- routes, education and health care services disrupting the

economy.


Governments allocate more money and other resources to fund war efforts. As a result other institutions end up losing their budget.

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Economic impacts …

The labor force of the economy also changes with the effect of war.

When there is prolonged war the labor force shrinks due to:
 Men heading to war

 Drastic loss of life

 Displacement of workers, and

 Destruction of infrastructure

 When there is war in a country:-

-The truism industry collapses

-Foreign and Domestic investment declines

-Loss of GDP (Gross Domestic Product)

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 Most of the time war impacts the economy in a negative way, but in some cases war can
stimulate a country’s economy. World War II is often credited for bringing America out of the
great depression..

 Some Economic benefits war

 high employment
 Increase rate of innovation
 e.g-Radar and Jet engine were invented during theWW II.
 Change in social attitude
 e.g- Women entering labor market after the 1st WW.

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 The health impact of war and conflict

 Death and injuries on the battle field

 Soldiers and civilians suffer death and disabling injuries

 Health consequences from the displacement of population as a result of overcrowding in shelters,

poor sanitation, lack of pure water supply and food shortage
 Spread of water born diseases like cholera, and other diarrheal diseases

 Scabies and other skin diseases.

 Malnutrition – children and pregnant women are more affected.

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The health impact of war and conflict

Death and injuries on the battle field

 Soldiers and civilians suffer death and disabling injuries

Health consequences from the displacement of population as a result of overcrowding

in shelters, poor sanitation, lack of pure water supply and food shortage
 Spread of water born diseases like cholera, and other diarrheal diseases

 Scabies and other skin diseases

 Malnutrition – children and pregnant women are more affected

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 Mental health problems like acute stress, depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress
disorder(PTSD).

 Sexual violence and rape are common in war situation, and hence the spread of sexually
transmitted infections(STIs) and HIV/AIDS. Also increase in the number of unwanted pregnancy.

 Immunization programs are disrupted during war, leaving young children susceptible to previously
rare diseases.
 Example-First case of polio is reported in Syria after 15 years.

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 The breakdown of health and social services means other medical emergencies and
chronic conditions like CVD, DM, Kidney disorders etc .. are left untreated.

 Death and injuries from indirect consequences of war, which may occur several years
after a conflict ends.

 Some estimates place the annual conflict related death toll in the 20th century at between
1 and 1.5 million per year, more than the annual death toll caused by malaria, and equal
to that of TB and AIDS.

 Therefore, the impacts of war and conflict have a major public health importance.

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Role of public health professionals during war and conflict

• Public health professionals play key roles in preventing and intervening on the Acute and long
term effect of war and conflict

Classification based different dimensions

1. Insider/Outsider public health workers

 Insider-public health professional who lives in and belongs to region of conflict

 Outsider-doesn’t live in region of conflict

2. Policy and sector wide intervention

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3. Primary/secondary/tertiary prevention

 Primary-reducing factors leading to eruption of war or Strengthening protective factors

 Educating policy makers and the public about the anticipated consequences of war.

 Advocate alternate solutions to conflict.

 Research to identify potential risk factors and provide early warnings.

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• Secondary- preventing and minimizing the health and enviromental consequnce
of war once it has begun
 Mitigation morbidity and mortality as possible

 Tabulation of the injuries, illnesses and death that do occur

 Protecting medical care and public health systems from destruction.

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• Tertiary- Treating or ameliorating the health consequences of war

 Maintaining communication among health facilities and suppliers to ensure the best possible
care for patients.
 Promoting the human rights of the victims

 Managing the reintroduction of combatants, who may have mental health problems, into
society.

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Specific roles for public health professionals

Surveillance and Documentation

Education and awareness raising

Advocacy

Direct action
 Agencies to provide assistance to refugees

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The End
Questions?

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