Amid a proliferation of brutal armed conflicts, Red Cross chief Mirjana Spoljaric decried the disregard shown for the internationally agreed laws of war, with disastrous consequences on the ground, in an interview with AFP.

“What we see are constant violations of international humanitarian law in a fast-rising number of compiling conflicts,” Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told AFP this week.

“The numbers of civilian casualties that we see today (and) that high and fast-rising number of displaced people are unacceptable,” Spoljaric said.

She voiced serious concern about a growing tendency in conflicts, including in the Middle East, Sudan and Myanmar, where there has been a “collapse of entire health systems”.

“Why is this necessary in achieving military goals?” she asked.

She slammed the “undermining and hollowing out (of) international humanitarian law to the extent where it allows you anything in the conduct of hostilities to achieve your military goals”.