UN report says government forces led child war abuses in 2024

Unitednations,UPDATED: Jun 19, 2026 03:28 IST

A new United Nations report says nearly 25,000 children caught in conflict were subjected to a record number of grave violations in 2024, including killings, rape and recruitment to fight. For the first time since the UN began monitoring abuses against children in conflict 30 years ago, government forces, and not armed groups, were responsible for the majority of these violations.

The annual report by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, released this week, said the number of violations rose for the fourth year in a row to 38,558, based on verified UN data. It includes a blacklist of violators made up of government forces from eight countries and 67 armed groups from 16 countries and territories. The Israeli military and security forces topped the 2025 list with 12,445 violations, followed by Congo with 4,114 violations, and Myanmar, Somalia and armed groups in Nigeria, each with more than 2,000 violations.

The report said 24,174 children, one-third of them girls, were affected, with several thousand subjected to multiple violations. These abuses also included abductions, attacks on schools and hospitals, and denial of humanitarian access. Vanessa Frazier, the UN special representative for children in armed conflict, said, "The scale and persistence of these violations demand more than acknowledgment - they demand resolve." She urged the 193 UN member states to confront the findings and "recognise that protecting children is not an aspiration but an obligation, and that the decisions taken today will shape the futures they may or may not live to claim".

According to the report, government forces were also "the main perpetrators" of 6,266 killings of children, a 34 per cent rise from the previous year, as well as 7,958 injuries. The UN said it verified the killing of 2,668 Palestinian children by Israeli forces in Gaza, and 55 Palestinian children in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It said reports of the killing of another 4,588 children in Gaza and injuries to 346 Israeli children were still being verified. Israel's UN mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Guterres said he was "appalled by the magnitude of grave violations against children" in the Palestinian territories and Israel, "gravely alarmed by the staggering increase in grave violations" by Israeli forces, and "deeply alarmed at the staggering rise in attacks carried out by Israeli settlers" affecting children without accountability. He urged Israel to develop and sign a plan with the UN to end the killing and maiming of children, and attacks on schools and hospitals, through time-bound commitments.

Frazier told reporters on Thursday that there were several reasons government forces were responsible for more violations this year. These included "the impunity that we are seeing towards international law" and changes in warfare from battlefields to densely populated areas, with the use of drones and wide-area explosives. In her analysis of the report, she said, "Children were impacted while escaping fighting, seeking food, water or medical care, and navigating areas heavily contaminated by explosive remnants of war, often contributing to life-long disabilities."

The UN also verified the recruitment and use of 6,607 children in conflict, with the highest numbers in Congo, Nigeria, Haiti, Somalia and Colombia. It said 5,129 children were abducted, mainly in Nigeria, Congo, Somalia, Myanmar and Mozambique. It also recorded 1,783 child victims of rape and sexual violence, with the highest numbers in Congo, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan and Haiti. Overall, the report presented a year of rising and widespread abuses against children in conflict, with government forces emerging as the main perpetrators for the first time.

With PTI Inputs

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