List of massacres in 2025
Executive summary
A disparate set of incidents labeled “massacres” occurred or were reported in 2025 across multiple theaters of violence — notably Syria, parts of Africa and Nigeria, and in the erupting protest violence at year‑end in Iran — but definitions, counts and culpability are contested and sourced largely to NGOs, local monitoring groups and compilations like Wikipedia (which aggregates media reporting) rather than single, uncontested forensic inquiries [1] [2] [3] [4]. Reporting shows particularly heavy losses among Syrian minority communities in early 2025 and multiple named attacks catalogued on category pages for “Massacres in 2025,” while other instruments (mass‑shooting trackers, databases and the Early Warning Project) underline that what is called a “massacre” depends on definitional thresholds and the reporting body [5] [6] [7].
1. Syria — concentrated, sectarian mass killings and disputed responsibility
Independent monitors and aggregated reporting document a wave of deadly attacks against minority communities in Syria in early 2025: Wikipedia’s dedicated page on the 2025 massacres of Syrian Alawites cites NGO tallies that range into the hundreds and cites the UK‑based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) alleging more than 1,600 civilian deaths by militias supporting the Syrian government between 6 and 12 March 2025, with especially deadly incidents in Latakia governorate including killings in Al‑Mukhtariya and Al‑Shir [2]. Syrian state and transitional authorities offered competing narratives — at times promising investigations or denying responsibility — and a domestic investigative committee’s July 2025 findings were criticized by Human Rights First as effectively absolving government forces of responsibility for many of the suspected perpetrators, illustrating how accountability remains contested [2].
2. Other Syrian incidents and civil‑war tolls recorded by monitors
Beyond the Alawite incidents, monitoring groups recorded broader massacre‑style violence across Syria in 2025 including attacks on Druze communities in April and multiple assaults on civilian infrastructure; the Syrian Network for Human Rights cataloged thousands of deaths across the year and specifically documented massacres and attacks on schools, medical facilities and places of worship, noting that some killings were attributed to regime forces while others were linked to various armed groups or remained unattributed [8] [3]. These NGO tallies are explicit that documentation gaps exist and that some reported deaths were discovered or confirmed months later, which complicates precise, contemporaneous accounting [3].
3. Africa and Nigeria entries listed as ’massacres’ in aggregated listings
Category pages that aggregate 2025 massacres point to named incidents beyond Syria — for example the Bukavu M23 rally bombings, the 2025 Katsina mosque attack, an “Edo State Massacre” and Fambita mosque attack — reflecting a geographically dispersed phenomenon where local insurgencies, communal violence or terrorist attacks produced mass civilian killings; these are listed on a Wikipedia category page compiling pages titled “Massacres in 2025,” which serves as an index but does not settle causation or legal responsibility for each event [1].
4. Iran at year‑end and the difficult boundary between protests and mass atrocity claims
Large‑scale deadly crackdowns that began 28 December 2025 are cataloged as part of a protest wave that spilled into 2026; reporting and compilations note claims of very high death tolls and characterize actions by security forces as massacres by some observers, while official counts and independent estimates differ widely and documentation was hindered by internet blackouts and restricted access — the Wikipedia entry on the 2025–2026 Iranian protests highlights both viral imagery and contested casualty estimates reported in January 2026 [4]. Careful readers should note that these incidents straddle calendar years and that attribution and verified tallies were actively disputed at the time of reporting [4].
5. How definitions and data sources shape the “list” and what that means for readers
What gets listed as a “massacre” in 2025 depends on source definitions and thresholds: databases focused on mass shootings in the U.S. use distinct definitions (four or more shot, per Gun Violence Archive or crowd‑sourced trackers), the Early Warning Project defines mass killing on a scale of 1,000+ targeted civilians per year, and NGO chronologies use their own criteria and field verification methods — therefore any compiled list will reflect the choices and potential biases of its curators and the limits of verification on the ground [5] [6] [7]. Where domestic investigatory bodies, local governments or international observers dispute responsibility — as in Syria — readers should treat casualty figures and culpability claims as provisional and contested [2].