Violence against children in conflict reaches record high

UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba. Photo: UNDP

A United Nations annual report has verified a record 41,370 grave violations against children in armed conflict during 2024, marking a 25 percent rise from the previous year. These violations—including killings, maimings, abductions, recruitment for combat, sexual violence, and attacks on schools and hospitals—represent the highest toll since the monitoring mechanism was established.

The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, warned that “the cries of innocent children forced to learn survival amidst gunfire and bombings should keep all of us awake at night,” underscoring the urgent need for global action to protect children and uphold international humanitarian law.

The report highlights Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories as the worst-affected region, followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Nigeria, and Haiti. In Ukraine, attacks on schools and medical facilities by government forces also drove up verified violations. The Associated Press further reports that non-state armed groups were responsible for roughly half of all abuses, while state actors accounted for most attacks on civilian infrastructure and denial of humanitarian access.

Gamba called on parties to conflict to commit to action plans and for the international community to strengthen monitoring, accountability, and preventive measures to reverse what she termed “a moral failure” to safeguard children caught in war.