'' *WORLD'S HORRID CONFLICTS* ''

NEW BATTLEFIELD DYNAMICS : Number of Civil Conflicts have doubled since 2001 : ICRC.

The number of civil conflicts worldwide has more than doubled since the start of the century, posing new challenges for curbing atrocities, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Monday.

In a new report, the ICRC has also noted ''more armed groups have emerged in the last six years than the previous 60,'' meaning the persuading fighters to adhere to basic humanitarian principles has become increasingly complex.

The ICRC is the primary organization responsible for protecting the Geneva Conventions - essentially the laws of war.

Its report entitled the Roots of Restraint in War, noted that historically the ICRC was largely focused on working with national militaries and we--structured  rebel groups to enshrine international  humanitarian law in their codes of conduct.

But the report said the approach needs to be  updated to respond to the changing nature of those now fighting.

Between 2001 to 2016, the number of ''non-international armed conflicts'' jumped from 30 to more than 70, the  ICRC said.

The number of groups fighting in any given conflict has also changed substantially.

''Only one-third of conflicts  are between two parties today,'' while 44 percent ''have between three and nine opposing forces,'' the ICRC said.

Its highlighted the extreme examples of the Libyan city of Misrata, where 236 armed groups were recorded in 2011, and data from the carter Center saying that in 2014 the Syrian conflict was being fought by 1,000 separate groups.

NEW BATTLEFIELD DYNAMICS : Report co-author Brian McQuinn told AFP armed groups now are also increasingly ''organised in fundamentally different groups and ways.''

In the past, a rebel force like for example, a Maoist group fighting in Asia would likely have had a structure that tightly mirrored the state military it was opposing. [AGENCIES]