When speaking about the end times or last days, Christ mentioned an increase in violence as part of the birth pains, we have seen then in the number of wars, increasing significantly each century.
According to a Wikipedia list of wars, the past 500 years have witnessed an increase in the frequency of wars:
15th Century – 29 wars
16th Century – 59 wars
17th Century – 75 wars
18th Century – 69 wars
19th Century – 294 wars
20th Century – 278 wars
The first decade of the 21st Century has already witnessed 55 wars, putting humanity on course for 550 wars over the next one hundred year period.
But here is another sign, the fact that we are facing permanent refugee era, due to ongoing violence in certain regions.
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World faces ‘near permanent’ refugee era: UNHCR
UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres warned governments on Monday that unrelenting conflicts in Afghanistan and Africa were creating a near permanent “global” refugee burden.
Highlighting decades of displacement for millions of Afghans and Somalis, Guterres told the UNHCR’s annual governing Executive Committee that last year was the worst in two decades for returns.
About 250,000 refugees went back home in 2009, about one quarter of the annual average over the past 10 years, according to the agency.
They included just 61 Somalis.
“The changing nature and the growing intractability of conflict make achieving and sustaining peace more difficult in today?s world,” Guterres said.
“As a result of never-ending conflicts, we are witnessing the creation of a number of quasi-permanent, global refugee populations, of which Afghans and Somalis are the most obvious,” he added.
The number of Somali refugees abroad rose from 440,000 to 678,000 by the end of 2009, despite a dip in the middle of the decade. Another 1.5 million Somalis were displaced inside the country.
Sixty-one Somali refugees returned home last year compared to 51,000 in 2001, according to UNHCR data, even though they face significant hardship abroad.
“I do not believe there is any group of refugees as systematically undesired, stigmatised and discriminated against,” said Guterres.
Some 1.7 million Afghan refugees are still in Pakistan, and another 1.0 million in Iran, while more are dispersed across 69 countries following nearly three decades of conflict in Afghanistan.
About 5.0 million have returned voluntarily since 2002, according to the UNHCR, which also highlighted displacement in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Guterres underlined the “extraordinary generosity” of Iran and Pakistan and urged greater international solidarity to share the burden, as well as more protection for travelling and often young refugees.
Twelve more countries have offered to take in existing refugees under resettlement programmes since 2008 but the number of places on offer is too low.
“We estimate that as many as 800,000 refugees need resettlement, yet the number of places available annually is only around 10 percent of that, and less than one percent of the total number of refugees in the world,” the UN refugee chief said.
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