Crimes Against Children in Conflict Zones Reach Record Levels

Record low, and moreover, against the most vulnerable. Crimes against children living in conflict zones worldwide increased by 30% in 2024, reaching the worst documented levels to date, both in terms of exposure to conflicts and severe violations committed against children, according to the latest study on this issue published by the non-governmental organization (NGO) Save the Children. Africa and Asia are the most affected regions by this scourge, with Palestine in focus, concentrating a third of the most severe, even deadly, rights abuses.

The report titled 'No to War on Children: Security for Whom?' states that killings, mutilations, abductions, and sexual assaults against children are 'at record levels' in conflict zones, with 41,763 crimes against boys and girls in these contexts during 2024, a figure that surpasses that of 2023—which was previously the year with the worst figures—and is double those documented in 2022.

Thus, it notes that more than half of the violations took place in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Nigeria, and Somalia, while stating that a record number of 520 million children lived in active conflict zones, meaning that more than one in five children worldwide were in this situation, according to the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).

This figure represents a maximum 'both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the global child population', it highlights, while emphasizing that 'the figure is more than 2.5 times higher than in the mid-1990s', with the percentage of children living in conflict zones more than double compared to that decade.

'The drastic increase is mainly due to a higher proportion of children living in conflict zones and not to population growth', the NGO states, before adding that 'this increase is driven by the expansion of the geographical footprint of armed conflict, the spread of conflict to densely populated areas, and the increase in the intensity of violence', reports Europa Press.

63% of children exposed to conflict lived in areas with 'low-intensity violence', while 20.5% lived in 'medium-intensity' areas and 15% in 'high-intensity' areas. Additionally, 8.3 million children, 1.6%, lived in 'extreme-intensity' areas.

On the other hand, it indicates that 60% of verified cases of killings and maimings, recruitment, abduction, and sexual violence were committed against boys, while 37% of cases affected girls. To these is added three% of cases where their gender was not specified.

'While boys account for the majority of total cases, girls were disproportionately affected by sexual violence', it laments, before noting that 'sexual and gender-based violence violations continue to be documented below their real level, mostly due to the perceived negative stigma associated with these experiences'.

The document reflects that the number of interstate conflicts is the highest since the end of World War II and points out that the number of children in conflict zones has increased by 60% since 2010, with verified severe violations soaring by 373%, demonstrating that these conflicts 'are much more deadly and brutal for boys and girls'.

The number of conflicts increased from 24,000 in 2023 to nearly 27,000 in 2024, with Africa as the area with the highest number and percentage of children living in these zones, with 218 million affected—32.6% of the child population in the region—surpassing for the first time since 2007 the Middle East, with 50 million children in conflict zones, 30.8%.

Behind are Asia, with 169 million children in conflict zones—13.6%; America, with 65 million children—22.7%; and Europe, with 15 million, a figure that nearly doubles that recorded in 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022.

However, it points out that most severe violations were recorded in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, amid Israel's offensive against the Gaza Strip following the October 7, 2023 attacks and the increase in Israeli military operations in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. 'Last year, one in three children killed or maimed in conflicts (worldwide) was Palestinian', says the NGO.

On the other hand, it indicates that a daily average of 78 children in conflict zones suffered severe violations or were exposed to attacks on schools and hospitals, as well as the blocking of humanitarian aid by armed forces and groups, with more than eleven% of the land area within a 50-kilometer radius of a conflict, also the highest figure ever recorded.

The report highlights that the cases and number of incidents corresponding to each type of severe violation against children increased, except for the recruitment and use of children by armies and armed groups, whose number contracted by 4.5%, from 7,751 in 2023 to 7,405 in 2024.

Severe violations, including killings and maimings, abductions, sexual violence, recruitment into armed groups, attacks on schools and hospitals, and denial of humanitarian access to boys and girls, raise the number to over 400,000 cases in 33 countries since 2005, with 160,000 children killed or maimed and more than 100,000 forcibly recruited over the past two decades.

'This damning report is more than facts and figures. It's about Ali, who had to flee northern Gaza with his seven siblings and is so severely malnourished that he has developed osteomalacia or 'soft bone disease', which prevents him from moving or walking', said Save the Children's CEO, Inger Ashing.

'It's about Bahati, 12, whose school in eastern DRC was attacked and was forced to walk for two days with bullets flying over his head. It's about children worldwide who live and breathe terror, pain, sorrow, hunger, and suffering', she highlighted, before stating that 'the world is at a critical crossroads'.

In this regard, she argued that 'armed conflicts are increasing and severe violations against children have reached record levels'. 'At the same time, the humanitarian system and the UN are desperate. While the future of these institutions remains uncertain, there is one principle that must guide their transformation: childhood must be at the center', she explained.

'True security is not about weapons or walls. It's about children being safe, learning, and living without fear', she pointed out, before advocating that 'states must act decisively to prevent conflicts and promote peace, protect children, ensure accountability, and listen to and meaningfully engage with children'.

Gudrun Ostby, a research professor at PRIO, shared this view, saying that 'with an unprecedented number of children at risk and aid budgets under severe pressure, the need to protect children trapped in conflicts has never been more urgent'. 'Behind every figure is a child whose safety, education, and future are at risk', she warned.

Therefore, Save the Children has called on all states to respect International Humanitarian Law, ensure safe humanitarian access, increase specific funding for children in emergency situations, and support and implement treaties and declarations in war zones, in addition to developing strategies for peace and addressing the root causes of conflicts.