Red Cross finds around half of all armed groups are state-supported

They are often violent, ruthless and unforgiving – and despite being unelected they wield influence over tens of millions of people around the globe. Over the past decade there's been a hidden trend: the proliferation of armed groups.

In new research reported Tuesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross mapped out 524 armed groups that are raising humanitarian concerns across all continents and have at least partial control of areas where 175 million people live.

Sixty-four million of those live in areas fully controlled by armed groups; the other 111 million live in areas that are contested or fluidly controlled by armed groups.

Around half of all armed groups receive military, political or financial support from governments, the ICRC finds. And as the world grows more violent and uncaring, these militants do too.

They’re known by terms such as violent non-state actors and non-state armed groups, or NSAGs, as the ICRC, which has worked for years to communicate with these often brutal organizations, refers to them.

They might be freedom fighters or repressive paramilitaries, religious zealots or nihilistic drug dealers, street gangs or high-seas pirates. Regardless of their situation, NSAGs and governments that support them are subject to international laws and norms – and can better protect civilians and detainees if they have the intention to do so, according to ICRC.

The 'battlefield of choice'

Increasingly, the ICRC finds, urban areas with dense populations and a maze of hiding places are the “battlefield of choice” for these groups.

Cities have strategic importance and the environment allows militants to conceal their movements and evade their foes. Urban areas also provide NSAGs with funding, fresh recruits and services and supplies.

Last year, NSAGs were involved in urban fighting in at least 13 countries across Africa, the Middle East and Asia, using “irregular and improvised methods” of warfare that result in incidental and deliberate harm to civilians, the ICRC reports.

“Fighting in urban areas is considered the most dangerous form of warfare; the concentration of the population, the proximity of intense fighting to civilians and the interdependency of essential services all exacerbate the range and scale of civilian harm that can occur during conflict,” the ICRC's Ruben Stewart and and Celia Edeline wrote in a recent blog post.

The threat to prisoners

Of special concern to the ICRC are the estimated 150 groups that take prisoners, “from thousands of detainees in overcrowded prisons to a handful of detained soldiers kept in an armed group’s camp.”

The Geneva Conventions, adopted on August 12, 1949 in the aftermath of World War II, govern the rules of war and military occupation. They are the basic legal principles everyone in armed conflict must follow to ensure a measure of humanity, striking a balance between military and humanitarian needs.

The Geneva-based ICRC is custodian of the four conventions. The Third Geneva Convention gives the ICRC the legal right to speak to POWs anywhere they are held. Too often, though, the laws of war and International Humanitarian Law, or IHL, are violated with detainees subjected to rape and other acts of violence.

“The mandate of the International Committee of the Red Cross to work for the protection of detainees in the hands of any party to an armed conflict — including non-state armed groups — has rarely been more relevant and needed than today. The reality we face is challenging,” Nils Melzer, the ICRC's director of international law, policy and humanitarian diplomacy, writes in the new report.

The Red Cross is working to actively engage NSAGs with the aim of providing aid and protection to affected populations while promoting respect of IHL and other areas of law that are applicable to the militants.

The ICRC maintains that the militants — and the governments that support them — can better protect innocent civilians and detainees if they have the intention and the information to do so.

To that end, the ICRC is distributing a new manual, “Reducing Civilian Harm in Urban Warfare: A Handbook for Armed Groups,” that explains the responsibilities of NSAG commanders and fighters and explains ways to reduce harm to civilians.

Increasingly challenging environment

As it works to communicate with leaders of NSAGs and protect civilians caught up in the violence, the ICRC is coming up against two trends complicating its efforts.

The first is that militant groups have proliferated over the past decade, and their diverse nature and working methods are making it increasingly difficult for the ICRC and other humanitarian groups to operate safely.

Second, an ever-expanding web of measures taken by various countries to deal with NSAGs — such as labeling them “terrorists” — severely curtails what humanitarian groups can do without facing legal and other consequences.