24,174 Children Victimized in Conflict Zones in 2025 - Press conference | United Nations

Press Conference by Vanessa Frazier, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, on the Secretary-General's Annual Report. 24,174 children were killed, maimed, recruited, raped or otherwise affected by grave violations in conflict zones last year, the United Nations said, calling the toll “many scars on our collective moral conscience.” Frazier said her office verified 38,558 grave violations affecting 24,174 children in 2025, the highest number recorded since the Children and Armed Conflict mandate was established 30 years ago. “Today's findings are stark. They reflect the shocking reality faced by children in conflict zones around the world, a reality that concerns all of us,” Frazier told reporters in New York. The violations tracked under the mandate include recruitment and use of children, killing and maiming, rape and other forms of sexual violence, abductions, attacks on schools and hospitals, and the denial of humanitarian access to children, she noted. For the first time since the mandate was created, government forces were responsible for the majority of grave violations, Frazier said, adding that state forces remained the principal perpetrators of killing and maiming, attacks on schools and hospitals, and the denial of humanitarian access. “These patterns reflect persistent and blatant disregard for international law, and for the rights and special protections owed to children,” she said. Killing and maiming was the most prevalent violation, with 14,224 children verified as killed or maimed, Frazier continued. The number of children killed rose 35 percent compared with 2024, reaching 6,266, she said, followed by 8,322 incidents of denial of humanitarian access and 6,607 cases of recruitment and use of children in armed conflict. Sexual violence against children, particularly girls, continues to be used as a tactic of war to humiliate, terrorize and displace entire communities, Frazier said, pointing to a rise in gang rape committed by parties to conflict as evidence of “a deliberate and organized use of sexual violence within the ranks.” The countries with the highest levels of violations in 2025 were the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Myanmar and Somalia, she said. Frazier closed her briefing with an appeal to translate the findings into action. “The lives of these 24,174 children are as many scars on our collective moral conscience. I hope we carry them with us so that we use their memory and their pain to act,” she said.


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