Guides · Updated 2026-10-27

Glossary of conflict and humanitarian terms

News about armed conflict uses military, legal and humanitarian terms that are easy to confuse. This glossary explains the words that appear most often in the reports we collect, in plain language. Definitions are simplified; for legal detail, see the International Committee of the Red Cross and UN agency resources linked from our country pages.

Airstrike: An attack carried out by military aircraft, such as jets, helicopters or armed drones, against a target on the ground or at sea. Reports often cannot say which aircraft were involved in the first hours.
Air-raid alert: A public warning that missiles, drones or aircraft may be approaching. An alert means a threat was detected, not that anything was hit.
Annexation: A state declaring that territory belonging to another state is now its own. Annexations carried out by force are not recognised under international law.
Armistice: A formal agreement to stop fighting, usually signed by military commanders. It ends active hostilities but does not by itself settle the political dispute.
Asylum seeker: A person who has left their country and applied for protection as a refugee in another country, but whose claim has not yet been decided.
Buffer zone: An area between opposing forces where military activity is limited or banned, sometimes monitored by a third party such as a UN mission.
Ceasefire: An agreement to stop fighting, which can be temporary, local or nationwide. Reports often say a ceasefire is “holding” or has been “violated”; both claims usually come from the parties themselves at first.
Civilian: Under international humanitarian law, anyone who is not a member of the armed forces or an organised armed group taking part in hostilities. Civilians are protected from direct attack.
Claim of responsibility: A public statement by a group saying it carried out an attack. Claims can be false or exaggerated, which is one reason this site does not show who is said to be responsible.
Contested area: A place where control is disputed or changes often. A town named in a report is not necessarily held by any side.
Corridor (humanitarian): A route agreed by the parties, often for a limited time, to let civilians leave or aid enter an area affected by fighting.
Displacement: People being forced to leave their homes because of conflict, violence or disaster. It is often measured in two groups: internally displaced people and refugees.
Drone (UAV): An uncrewed aerial vehicle. Some carry cameras for surveillance; others carry explosives, either dropping them or crashing into the target (often called one-way attack or loitering munitions).
Embargo: A ban on trade, often on weapons, with a country or group. Arms embargoes may be imposed by the UN Security Council or by individual states.
Escalation: An increase in the intensity or geographic scope of a conflict, such as new weapons being used or fighting spreading to new areas.
Front line: The line where opposing ground forces meet. Front lines in long wars can move slowly or change quickly, and reports about them are among the hardest to verify.
Humanitarian access: The ability of aid organisations to reach people in need and of people in need to reach aid. Access is often limited by fighting, checkpoints or bureaucratic restrictions.
Humanitarian pause: A short, often local stop in fighting to allow aid deliveries or evacuations. It is narrower than a ceasefire.
Insurgency: An armed campaign by a non-state group against a government, usually using irregular tactics such as ambushes, roadside bombs and raids.
Internally displaced person (IDP): Someone forced to leave their home who remains inside their own country. Unlike refugees, IDPs have not crossed an international border.
International humanitarian law (IHL): The rules that apply during armed conflict, also called the laws of war, mainly set out in the Geneva Conventions. They protect people who are not or no longer fighting and limit the means and methods of warfare.
Interception: Stopping an incoming missile, drone or aircraft before it reaches its target, usually with air-defence systems. Debris from an interception can still cause damage on the ground.
Militia: An armed group that is not part of a state’s regular army. Some militias are linked to governments, others oppose them, and some act independently.
Non-state armed group: An organised armed group that is not part of a state’s forces, such as a rebel movement, militia or jihadist group.
Occupation: Under international law, a situation in which territory is placed under the authority of a hostile army. Occupying powers have specific legal obligations towards the population.
Open-source intelligence (OSINT): Information gathered from publicly available sources such as satellite images, videos posted online, flight and ship trackers, and official statements, and checked against each other.
Peacekeeping: The deployment of international forces, usually under the UN or a regional organisation, to monitor a ceasefire or support a peace process with the consent of the main parties.
Proxy: An armed group or state that fights with support from an outside power. Whether a group is a proxy is often disputed, so reports use the term with care.
Refugee: A person who has fled their country because of a well-founded fear of persecution, conflict or violence and is protected under international law, mainly the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Sanctions: Measures such as asset freezes, travel bans or trade restrictions imposed on states, companies or individuals to pressure them to change behaviour.
Shelling: Firing artillery shells, mortars or rockets at a target, usually from a distance. Shelling is common near front lines.
Siege: Surrounding an area and cutting it off from supplies. Starving civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited under international humanitarian law.
Single-source report: A report published by only one outlet so far. On this site such reports are labelled “Unverified · 1 source” and are not placed on the map.
Truce: An informal or temporary agreement to stop fighting. The word is often used loosely in headlines and can mean the same as a ceasefire.
Verified: On this site, an event reported by at least two independent outlets. It means the event was reported consistently, not that every detail has been confirmed.

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