This study has examined the visual communication strategies employed by non-governmental aid organizations on social media in context of conflict settings of which are aimed at fostering engagement and action, with a particular focus on both established conflicts and recently escalated conflicts. By analysing the Instagram posts of specifically four non-governmental humanitarian aid organizations, consisting of UNICEF Sweden, Red Cross, Save the Children and Doctors Without Borders, the study aims to get an understanding of how these organizations visually communicate in the context of conflicts. To achieve the objective of this study, a qualitative analysis was conducted with the use of both semiotic and rhetorical frameworks to examine the nature of the organizations visual communication, and to further identify any differences in their communicative approach and strategies. 

The conducted analysis reveals notable differences within the organizations visual communicative approaches, such as distinctions between how established and recently escalated conflicts are portrayed and communicated in their social media to create engagement, along with differences between the communicative strategies within the organizations themselves. The analysis reveals that posts related to recently escalated conflicts focus on visualizing the urgent situations through powerful imagery, which are depicting children or people in fear or distress, to elicit a greater emotional response in order to create engagement. In contrast, posts related to established conflicts are visualized to show the organization's efforts and progress of the aid within the conflict situation, rather than visualizing the urgency of the conflict, which perceives the conflict as less urgent due to the lack of emphasization of the acute engagement.