Recent and ongoing genocides

When Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp on January 27, 1945, few of them realized they were witnessing what would come to be known as a “genocide.” The term had only recently been coined in 1944 by Polish-Jewish jurist Raphael Lemkin, who combined the Greek word *genos* (race or tribe) and the Latin caedere (to kill).

While the Holocaust popularized the term, it was neither the first genocide nor the last. Systematic mass killings have occurred across the globe—from Ukraine and Cambodia to the jungles of Africa and the mountains of the Middle East. Below are some of the deadliest genocides in modern history, listed by estimated death toll.

Kurdish genocide: 50,000 to 182,000 victims

The Kurdish Genocide, also known as the Anfal Campaign, occurred during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. The Kurdistan region of northern Iraq was home to two main political forces aligned with Iran: the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The Kurds had long sought independence, a goal opposed by their neighbors.

By February 1988, after years of conflict, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein launched a brutal campaign against the Kurdish population. Over the following nine months, Iraqi forces carried out what international journalists described as a campaign of “urban destruction, displacement, and mass killings.”

The campaign began with a poison gas attack that killed hundreds. Iraq became the first country in history to use chemical weapons against its own citizens. Reports indicate that captured individuals were interrogated, and those aged 15 to 70 were executed. Thousands of men, women, and children were shot and buried in mass graves. Human Rights Watch estimates the death toll between 50,000 and 100,000, while Kurdish sources claim up to 182,000 victims.

East Timor genocide: 180,000 to 200,000 victims

East Timor, a small island nation in Southeast Asia, borders the Indonesian province of West Timor. Following the withdrawal of Portuguese colonial authorities in late 1975, the left-wing Fretilin party declared independence. Shortly thereafter, Indonesia invaded, occupying East Timor from 1975 to 1999.

During this 24-year occupation, an estimated 180,000 to 200,000 people were killed—about a quarter of the population at the time. Victims died from direct violence, disease, and deliberate starvation. According to a United Nations report, Indonesian forces used hunger as a weapon, even poisoning food and water supplies.

Mass executions, torture, and public killings in front of family members were common, aimed at terrorizing supporters of independence. After the 1999 independence referendum, pro-Indonesian militias killed another 1,500 people and burned entire villages. To date, many Indonesian military officials involved have not been held accountable.

Bangladesh genocide: 300,000 to 3 million victims

In 1971, Dhaka was not yet the capital of an independent Bangladesh but the political center of East Pakistan. The Bengali population, which constituted the majority in East Pakistan, aspired to establish a sovereign state. However, this ambition was strongly opposed by West Pakistan.

In December 1970, Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman won the general election, but West Pakistan’s ruling authorities refused to accept the result. This led to a brutal military crackdown beginning in March 1971 and continuing until December.

Historian Anam Zakaria estimates the death toll at between 300,000 and 3 million, with the majority of victims killed as part of a deliberate campaign of extermination. U.S. Consul General Archer Blood wrote at the time:

“Pakistani soldiers are searching for Bengali independence supporters house by house and shooting them.”

Despite these reports, the Nixon administration—viewing West Pakistan as a key Cold War ally—largely ignored the atrocities.

The genocide also involved widespread sexual violence, used not only to terrorize the population but also to attempt to engineer a generation of West Pakistani descent, referred to as "war children." The genocide ended on December 16, 1971, when Pakistani forces surrendered to the Indian military.

Rwandan genocide: 800,000 to 1 million victims

In 1994, between 800,000 and 1 million Tutsi were massacred by Hutu extremists in Rwanda. At the time, the Tutsi made up about 14 percent of the population, while the Hutu comprised around 85 percent. Since Rwanda’s independence in 1962, the Tutsi minority had been subjected to systematic discrimination and waves of violence.

Many Tutsi fled the country and, by the late 1980s, formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in neighboring Uganda. A ceasefire between the RPF and the Rwandan government was signed in 1993.

On April 6, 1994, President Juvénal Habyarimana’s plane was shot down by a ground-launched missile as it approached Kigali airport. The perpetrators remain unknown, with suspicion falling on both Tutsi rebels and Hutu hardliners opposed to the peace process. Within hours of the president’s death, coordinated attacks against Tutsi civilians and moderate Hutus erupted across the country. Over the next 100 days, victims were slaughtered using machetes, clubs, and other crude weapons.

The RPF broke the ceasefire and launched a military offensive, eventually capturing Kigali on July 4, bringing the genocide to an end.

Circassian genocide: 1.5 million victims

The Circassian Genocide is considered by many historians to be the first genocide of the 19th century. It resulted in the destruction of approximately 97 percent of the Circassian population, once the largest ethnic group in the North Caucasus.

The genocide occurred during the Russo-Circassian War, which lasted from 1763 to 1864. As the Russian Empire expanded south through the Caucasus toward the Black Sea, it pursued a campaign of mass deportation, scorched-earth tactics, forced displacement, and widespread execution. The Circassians mounted a prolonged guerrilla resistance, but internal divisions among tribes and between local leaders and the general population weakened their efforts.

Attempts to form alliances with neighboring Caucasian peoples were largely unsuccessful. The Russian military also targeted the civilian population, conducting assassinations, kidnappings, and destroying food supplies, including crops and livestock, to cripple the resistance.

Ultimately, the Circassians were forced to either submit to Russian rule or flee. Hundreds of thousands were deported, with most resettled in the Ottoman Empire, particularly in modern-day Turkey.

Cambodian genocide: 1.5 to 3 million victims

In the early 1970s, Cambodia was engulfed in civil war. The radical communist group Khmer Rouge gradually gained power, and on April 17, 1975, they seized the capital, Phnom Penh. Led by Pol Pot, the regime declared this day “Year Zero,” aiming to erase existing society and build an agrarian utopia.

Over the next four years, millions of people were forced into rural labor camps. Intellectuals, professionals, religious figures, and ethnic minorities were targeted first. Even wearing glasses was considered grounds for execution, as it was seen as a sign of education.

By 1979, between 1.5 and 3 million Cambodians had died from starvation, forced labor, disease, and state violence—amounting to roughly one-fifth of the country’s population. The regime collapsed on January 7, 1979, when Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia. Pol Pot died in exile in 1998 and was never brought to justice.

Holodomor: 3.9 to 5 million victims

The Holodomor was a man-made famine that devastated Soviet Ukraine between 1932 and 1933, killing an estimated 3.9 to 5 million people. The famine was largely a result of Joseph Stalin’s forced collectivization policies, which disrupted agriculture and stripped farmers of grain and resources.

Ukraine, along with many historians and countries, considers the Holodomor to be an act of genocide orchestrated by the Soviet regime. The parliaments of Germany, France, Ireland, Romania, Moldova, the Czech Republic, and others have officially recognized it as such. The European Parliament adopted a resolution to this effect in December 2022. Russia continues to deny that the Holodomor constituted genocide.

The famine's impact extended beyond Ukraine. An estimated 3 million additional people died in other parts of the Soviet Union, including Kazakhstan. Access to accurate numbers is limited, as many relevant documents remain sealed in Russian archives.

At the time, famine victims were forced to consume tree bark, grass, straw, and even animal remains. There were also documented cases of cannibalism. Experts estimate that around a quarter of Ukraine’s population died during the famine, with about 4 million deaths in Ukraine alone.

The Holocaust: 11 million victims

The Holocaust was the result of Nazi racial ideology, which classified Aryans as superior and Jews as the most dangerous threat. After Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, the Nazi regime began implementing a policy of systematically excluding Jews from all aspects of German social, political, and economic life.

On November 9–10, 1938, Kristallnacht—“The Night of Broken Glass”—marked a turning point. Jewish-owned shops, synagogues, and homes were vandalized and destroyed, and thousands of Jews were arrested. By 1939, Jews were forced to wear identifying badges and were increasingly imprisoned in concentration camps.

During World War II, Jews, Roma (Gypsies), Slavs, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other groups deemed “subhuman” were confined to ghettos and deported to extermination camps. Special Nazi killing units, known as "Einsatzgruppen", shot approximately 1.5 million people in Eastern Europe.

From 1942, the Nazis expanded their genocidal efforts through industrialized mass gassing. An estimated 500,000 were killed at Belzec, 925,000 at Treblinka, and 1.1 million at Auschwitz. By the time the Mauthausen concentration camp was liberated on May 5, 1945, the Holocaust had claimed approximately 11 million lives, including six million Jews.

Unrecognized genocide

Despite the lessons of the past, acts that meet the criteria of genocide continue to occur in the present. In the case of Gaza, over 63,000 people have reportedly been killed amid ongoing conflict. Yet, aside from statements of concern and limited humanitarian aid, there has been little meaningful international intervention. Critics argue this reflects a troubling double standard in the enforcement of international law.

Article II of the United Nations Genocide Convention—adopted in December 1948 and ratified by 153 countries as of January 1951—defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group:

•  Killing members of the group
•  Causing serious bodily or mental harm
•  Deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to destroy the group
•  Imposing measures to prevent births
•  Forcibly transferring children to another group

Some states and human rights organizations have argued that Israel's military actions in Gaza meet one or more of these criteria. Turkey, Brazil, Amnesty International, and independent UN experts, including Francesca Albanese, have used the term "genocide" to describe the situation. Over 500 United Nations staff members have also written to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk and Secretary-General António Guterres, urging formal recognition of genocide.

However, the United Nations as a body has not officially labeled the situation as genocide. UN officials have stated that such a determination must be made by international judicial bodies such as the International Criminal Court or the International Court of Justice.