 Look around you, smartphone beside you, tablet at hand, blink once, and imagine all those things gone. You're no longer connected to information or people. Is anybody there? Are they okay? You simply don't know. Now imagine you're in the middle of an armed conflict. Safety may be a distant memory and violence is not the only thing that can harm you. People are talking of war. Fighting is erupting in your city. There is no power. What if phone lines go dead and the internet connection shuts down? With no means to charge your mobile phone or go online, you find yourself cut off from the rest of the world. News doesn't reach you. You're left in the dark wondering and worrying. What's going on? Are my family and friends safe? Is anybody coming to help? Being able to connect physically and digitally can give you back hope and strength in a crisis like this. But this need to connect can also be turned against you. During armed conflict, every form of communication brings uncertainty. You can't be sure if it's safe to talk in the street. Local media can be controlled by armed groups. What if your conversation is overheard? Where do your messages end up? Who can you trust? What news can you believe? Can you distinguish fact from fiction? What used to be a network of connection can trap you in a web of fear and manipulation. Enabling safe and trusted communication makes a real difference. Your community can reconnect and reorganize, ask for help, make informed decisions and demand accountability. This dialogue turns frightened people in need into active responders. The humanitarian community has made a lot of progress in the last decade to help people communicating crises. But armed conflicts are very different from natural disasters where things may improve over time. Conflicts pose quite specific challenges. It's crucial that we take that into account in order to establish better, smarter and safer ways to communicate with people in need. Amidst violence, communication is a lifeline. No matter how difficult the circumstances, meeting people's need for information and dialogue is never a choice. It's our collective responsibility.