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UN Verifies 38,558 Grave Violations Against Children in Armed Conflict in 2025, Mostly by Government Forces
Government forces accounted for most of the verified cases, with Israeli forces recording the single highest total at 12,445 violations.
Jun 18, 5:24 PM·2m read3 sources
UN
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The IndependentAudio version
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The United Nations verified 38,558 grave violations against children in armed conflict during 2025, marking the fourth consecutive annual increase. Government forces were responsible for the majority of those violations, a shift from prior years when armed groups accounted for the largest share.
The report documented 24,174 children affected by the violations, one-third of them girls, with several thousand subjected to multiple abuses.
The violations included killings, injuries, recruitment into armed forces, abductions, rape and sexual violence, attacks on schools and hospitals, and denial of humanitarian access. Israeli military and security forces committed 12,445 violations, the highest total recorded. Government forces in Congo committed 4,114 violations.
Government forces from Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, and Russia’s armed forces in Ukraine also appear on the UN blacklist. Government forces carried out 6,266 killings of children, a 34 percent increase from the previous year, and caused 7,958 injuries. The UN verified that Israeli forces killed 2,668 Palestinian children in Gaza and 55 Palestinian children in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Reports of an additional 4,588 child deaths in Gaza and injuries to 346 Israeli children remain under verification. The UN verified the recruitment and use of 6,607 children in armed conflict, with the highest numbers recorded in Congo, Nigeria, Haiti, Somalia, and Colombia. It verified 5,129 abductions, concentrated in Nigeria, Congo, Somalia, Myanmar, and Mozambique.
It also verified 1,783 cases of rape and sexual violence against children, with the highest numbers in Congo, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, and Haiti. The UN blacklist now includes government forces from eight nations and 67 armed groups from 16 countries and territories.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated he was “appalled by the magnitude of grave violations against children” in Palestinian territories and Israel.
