UN Reports 25% Surge in Sexual Violence in Global Conflicts, Warns Israel and Russia United Nations

AP/ PTI, Aug. 15 : Sexual violence in conflicts worldwide rose by 25% in 2024, with the highest number of cases recorded in the Central African Republic, Congo, Haiti, Somalia and South Sudan, according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ annual report.

More than 4,600 survivors were documented last year, though the UN stressed that verified figures understate the true scale of such crimes. Armed groups were responsible for most incidents, with some attributed to government forces.

The 34-page report blacklists 63 parties — government and non-government — across 12 countries suspected of committing or enabling rape and other forms of sexual violence in conflict. Over 70% have remained on the list for five years or more without taking preventive measures.

For the first time, the UN has also formally warned two parties that they could be added to next year’s blacklist: Israel’s military and security forces, over allegations of sexual abuse of Palestinians primarily in detention, and Russian forces and allied groups, over allegations of sexual abuse of Ukrainian prisoners of war.

Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon dismissed the claims as “steeped in biased publications,” urging the UN to focus on Hamas’ war crimes and the release of hostages. Russia’s UN mission declined comment.

The report defines “conflict-related sexual violence” to include rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, forced sterilisation, and forced marriage. Victims ranged from one to 75 years old, with most being women and girls, but men and boys were also targeted — often in detention, facing rape threats, electrocution and beatings to the genitals.

In eastern Congo, UN peacekeepers documented nearly 800 cases in 2024, including rape, gang rape, sexual slavery and forced marriage, often involving extreme violence. Incidents linked to the M23 rebel group jumped from 43 in 2022 to 152 in 2024.

In Sudan’s civil war, victim-support groups recorded 221 rape cases — 147 girls and 74 boys — with 16% of survivors under the age of five, including four one-year-olds.

Guterres warned that sexual violence continued to be deployed as a tactic of war, torture, terrorism and political repression, amid rising displacement and militarisation.