The Conflict Observatory is an American

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

that documents, verifies, and reports on war crimes occurring in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

and

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

. It publicizes evidence of Russian war crimes and other atrocities in the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, and mass atrocities and genocidal activities conducted by the Rapid Support Forces in Darfur. The organization uses

open-source intelligence Open source intelligence (OSINT) is the collection and analysis of data gathered from open sources (overt sources and publicly available information) to produce actionable intelligence. OSINT is primarily used in national security, law enforceme ...

research methods and commercial satellite imagery and data to produce reports that meet legal standards for use in international accountability efforts. Founded in 2022, the observatory was funded, but not governed, by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, until funding was cut by the Trump Administration through Elon Musk's DOGE organization.

History

The Conflict Observatory was developed by the United States Department of State's Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations at the outset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and was officially announced by State Department press secretary Ned Price on May 17, 2022. In 2023, the observatory’s efforts expanded to include the civil war in Sudan. The Conflict Observatory is not a repository of “breaking news.” Instead, it follows strict guidelines and protocols to ensure documentation is accurate and accessible to all audiences. The consortium brings together subject matter experts in human rights, humanitarian law, communication, and open source and geospatial data analytics. None of the data the Observatory uses and disseminates is classified.

Defunding by DOGE

In March 2025,

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

reported that the Trump Administration had cut all funding to the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab via the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization led by Elon Musk. The lab is a subset of the Conflict Observatory working to establish the whereabouts of Ukrainian children kidnapped by Russian forces and deported into the Russian adoption system. The deportation of children is a war crime, and the

International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an intergovernmental organization and International court, international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute ...

has formally accused Russia of employing the practice in Ukraine, indicting senior officials.{{Cite web , last=Burgess , first=Sanya , date=2025-03-14 , title=Musk cuts the team finding Ukrainian children stolen by Russia , url=https://inews.co.uk/news/world/musk-cuts-team-finding-ukraine-stolen-children-russia-3581184 , access-date=2025-03-16 , website= The i Paper , language=en-US The Conflict Observatory's website was taken offline following the defunding by DOGE.

Reports

The Ukraine Conflict Observatory has been documenting and analyzing Russia-perpetrated war crimes and other alleged atrocities in Ukraine. These crimes include the destruction of critical infrastructure, forced deportations, forced passportization, extrajudicial killings, and destruction of cultural heritage sites. The Sudan Conflict Observatory has been monitoring the ongoing civil war in Sudan by documenting the destruction of critical infrastructure, disruption to humanitarian aid, and alleged crimes against civilians. Since Conflict Observatory now defunct, some of its investigations are still accessible via Sudan Human Rights Hub website. Records of reports were maintained on the Conflict Observatory website (ConflictObservatory.org) and publication is announced via Instagram and X. While these executive briefs are made available to the public, the full data sets are

closed source Proprietary software is software that grants its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner a legal monopoly by modern copyright and intellectual property law to exclude the recipient from freely sharing the software or modi ...

, though certain organizations and international investigators may access the full contents of the database.

References

United States Department of State agencies Organizations established in 2022