Violence against children caught up in multiple and escalating conflicts reached "unprecedented levels" last year, with the highest number of violations in Gaza and the West Bank, Congo, Somalia, Nigeria and Haiti.
The United Nations annual report on Children in Armed Conflict detailed "a staggering 25 per cent surge in grave violations" against children under the age of 18 from 2023, when the number of such violations rose by 21 per cent.
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, "Children bore the brunt of relentless hostilities and indiscriminate attacks, and were affected by the disregard for ceasefires and peace agreements and by deepening humanitarian crises."
He cited warfare strategies that included attacks on children, the deployment of increasingly destructive and explosive weapons in populated areas, and "the systematic exploitation of children for combat."
Guterres said the United Nations verified 41,370 grave violations against children — 36,221 committed in 2024 and 5,149 committed earlier but verified last year. The violations include killing, maiming, recruiting and abducting children, sexual violence against them, attacking schools and hospitals and denying youngsters access to humanitarian aid.
The UN kept Israeli forces on its blacklist of countries that violate children's rights for a second year, citing 7,188 verified grave violations by its military, including the killing of 1,259 Palestinian children and injury to 941 others in Gaza. The Gaza Health Ministry has reported much higher figures, but the UN has strict criteria and said its process of verification is ongoing.
Guterres said he is "appalled by the intensity of grave violations against children in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel," and "deeply alarmed" by the increase in violations, especially the high number of children killed by Israeli forces.
He reiterated his calls on Israel to abide by international law requiring special protections for children, protection for schools and hospitals, and compliance with the requirement that attacks distinguish between combatants and civilians and avoid excessive harm to civilians.
The UN also kept Hamas, whose October 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad on the blacklist.
In Congo, the UN reported 4,043 verified grave violations last year and 2,568 violations in Somalia. In Nigeria, 2,436 grave violations were reported. And in Haiti, the UN reported 2,269 verified grave violations.
In the ongoing war following Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the United Nations kept the Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups on its blacklist for a third year.
The secretary-general expressed deep concern at "the sharp increase in grave violations against children in Ukraine" — 1,914 against 673 children. He expressed alarm at the violations by Russian forces and their affiliates, singling out their verified killing of 94 Ukrainian children, injury to 577 others, and 559 attacks on schools and 303 on hospitals.
In Haiti, the UN put a gang, the Viv Ansanm coalition, on the blacklist for the first time.
Secretary-General Guterres expressed deep "alarm" at the surge in violations, especially incidents of gang recruitment and use, sexual violence, abduction and denial of humanitarian aid.
The report said sexual violence jumped by 35 per cent in 2024, including a dramatic increase in the number of gang rapes, but stressed that the numbers are vastly underreported. "Girls were abducted for the purpose of recruitment and use, and for sexual slavery," the UN chief said.
In Congo, the UN reported 358 acts of sexual violence against girls — 311 by armed groups and 47 by Congo's armed forces.
And in Somalia, 267 children were victims of sexual violence, 120 of them carried out by Al-Shabab extremists.
According to the report, armed groups were responsible for almost 50 per cent of the violations of children and government forces the main perpetrator of the killing and maiming of children, school attacks and denial of humanitarian access.
"The cries of 22,495 innocent children who should be learning to read or play ball — but instead have been forced to learn how to survive gunfire and bombings — should keep all of us awake at night," said Virginia Gamba, the UN special representative for children and armed conflict.