The war on the body of the little ones: in 5 years the number of children sexually abused by conflicts has increased by 50%

Rebecca walks silently among the trees, with the back curved under the weight of some dry branch. He came out early, with other girls in the village, to look for wood in the bush of the Democratic Republic of the Eastern Congo. It is July, the sun is high when for Rebecca and her friends change everything: armed men, covered faces, shouts. Nobody comes, even if they scream. When Rebecca returns home, she says nothing. It doesn’t go to the hospital. He is afraid, he is ashamed. He is sixteen years old. Its history is one of the at least 1938 of abuse of minors in conflicts, recorded in 2024 by Save the Children: a frightening number, the highest since there are data. But behind each number there is a body and a life that will no longer be the same.

According to the new relationship of the United Nations Secretary General, the sexual violence against children in armed conflicts has reached a new tragic record, with an increase of 50 percent compared to 2020. In many cases, they are group rapes. Too many, nobody talks about it. Among the most affected countries, Haiti records the highest number of ascertained cases (566), followed by Nigeria (419), Democratic Republic of the Congo (358) And Somalia (267). Still, these numbers represent only a part of reality. The estimates are widely undersized due to the stigmatization, the fear of retaliation, the absence of adequate services, the impunity and the harmful social norms that prevent the victims from denouncing. The consequences of sexual violence on children are devastating from a physical, psychological and social point of view, Save the Children denounces, many survivors report serious injuries, sexually transmitted infections and, in the case of girls, mortal risks in case of early pregnancy. In addition to the trauma, many are forced to abandon school, undergo social exclusion and stigmatization.

“We must never turn our back on humanity. When you allow children to suffer implacable violence in the name of the war, the fault lies with everyone and we all have the responsibility to stop the suffering, “commented Inver Ashing, general director of Save the Children International. «The horrors to which children are under war are dramatically increase from year to year, a trend that reveals a persistent and clear lack of respect for the special protections guaranteed to children. Sexual violence against children in conflicts is a crime that once took place in the shadows, but which is now increasingly used as a clear war tactic and must be treated with the same severity as weapons and bombs». Ashing also underlined the need for urgent and coordinated action by the United Nations, States, donors and humanitarian organizations to strengthen protection measures and support survivors, both from a medical and psychological point of view. “The future of millions of children depends on an immediate and decisive global action.”