395 million people across 23 countries exposed to protection risks by Protection Cluster, UNHCR, UNICEF, UN Women 8:20am 28th Oct, 2025   Global Protection Update: October 2025    As of October 2025, Protection Clusters estimate that 395 million people across 23 countries are exposed to protection risks. These risks include direct threats to life from violence, coercion, and deliberate deprivation.    Across operations, the main protection risks reported are attacks on civilians, abductions and movement restrictions, alongside gender-based violence, denial of services, lack of legal identity, and psychosocial distress.    The convergence of these risks, coupled with the erosion of protective environments, has created an unprecedented global protection crisis, challenging both humanitarian response and political accountability.    Countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Myanmar, the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt - Gaza & West Bank), Sudan, and Ukraine face the most extreme situations, where populations experience overlapping patterns of violence, exclusion, and deprivation.    Since January 2025, conflict dynamics have intensified as a major driver of protection risks. In Gaza, the humanitarian crisis deepened, culminating in a famine declaration, while in the DRC, violence escalated across North and South Kivu, displacing over a million people in just weeks, adding to nearly 6.4 million IDPs. Sudan continues to face severe threats, particularly in El Fasher and the Zamzam IDP camp, where civilians are exposed to ongoing attacks, siege and displacement.    Rising violence in Mozambique (Cabo Delgado), Haiti, and Colombia (Catatumbo) has further exacerbated vulnerabilities, while fragile institutions and economic collapse compound risks in protracted and forgotten crises in Cameroon, Chad, and the Sahel.    Climate shocks exacerbate the effects of protection risks on people’s life and continue to aggravate protection needs, with earthquakes in Myanmar and Afghanistan displacing communities and heightening vulnerability, and floods in Nigeria and Venezuela disrupting access to essential services. Displacement, family separation, and loss of property are widespread, leaving communities highly exposed to harm.    The situational analysis, presented in this report, conducted at sub-national level is essential to identify specific geographic areas where violence, coercion and deliberate deprivation are not only acute and harmful but also at high risk of further escalation. Prioritizing these hotspots is critical to prevent further deterioration, curb the emergence of new protection risks, and respond to the compounding humanitarian needs they generate.    While most humanitarian crises are fundamentally protection crises, driven by violations of international law and patterns of abuse and violence, the current humanitarian response is constrained by increasing funding restrictions and access limitations, driving to significant service gaps and limited capacity to meet urgent needs across sectors.    Protection operations have been severely disrupted, with the scaling back or suspension of critical protection services, community-led interventions and early-warning/prevention mechanisms.    In June 2025, OCHA launched a hyper-prioritized humanitarian response plan to address the most urgent, life-saving needs in acute crises. Thanks to robust advocacy at country and global level, protection was integrated into these hyper-prioritized response plans, alongside the delivery of life-saving assistance.    Through this process, the Protection Cluster identified 24.7 million people as most urgently in need of assistance and protection. Yet, this represents just 14,7% of the 168 million people in need of protection globally – leaving 143,3 million people unassisted.    Meeting the prioritized protection needs alone requires US $1,2 billion. As of 31 August 2025, however, the Protection Cluster is only funded at 23% out of the initial US $3.2 billion requested, leaving a severe funding gap at a time of escalating risks and needs.    In this context, it is essential to position protection as a central pillar of humanitarian action, ensuring that violations are addressed, risks are mitigated, and life-saving assistance is delivered in ways that preserve the safety and dignity of affected populations.    http://globalprotectioncluster.org/index.php/publications/2347/reports/global-protection-update/global-protection-update-protection-prioritised http://reliefweb.int/report/world/global-protection-update-protection-prioritised-humanitarian-response-october-2025    676 million women live within 50 kilometers of deadly conflict. (UN Women)    The world is experiencing the highest number of active conflicts since 1946, creating unprecedented risks and suffering for women and girls.    The 2025 UN Secretary-General’s report on Women, Peace and Security warns that 676 million women now live within 50 kilometers of deadly conflict, the highest level since the 1990s. Civilian casualties among women and children quadrupled compared to the previous two-year period, and conflict-related sexual violence increased by 87 per cent in two years.    Issued on the 25th anniversary of Security Council resolution 1325, which committed the international community to women’s full participation and protection in peace and security, the report warns that two decades of progress are unraveling.    “Women and girls are being killed in record numbers, shut out of peace tables, and left unprotected as wars multiply. Women do not need more promises, they need power, protection, and equal participation”, said Sima Bahous, UN Women Executive Director.    Despite overwhelming evidence that women’s participation makes peace more durable, women remain largely excluded from decision-making. While an increasing number of countries have developed national action plans to implement resolution 1325, this has not always resulted in tangible change for women. In 2024, 9 out of 10 peace processes had no women negotiators, with women making up just 7 per cent of negotiators and 14 per cent of mediators globally.    The report also exposes a dangerous imbalance: while global military spending surpassed USD 2.7 trillion in 2024, women’s organizations in conflict zones received only 0.4 per cent of aid. Many front-line women’s groups are facing imminent closure due to financial constraints.    “These are not isolated data points, they are symptoms of a world that is choosing to invest in war instead of peace, and one that continues to exclude women from shaping solutions”, continued Bahous.    The report underscores the urgent need for a gender data revolution. Without disaggregated data, women’s realities in war zones remain invisible and unaccounted for. Closing these gaps is vital for accountability and for placing women’s experiences at the centre of decision-making.    “UN Women is calling for concrete, measurable results: conflicts resolved through inclusive political solutions, more women leading security reforms and recovery efforts, and greater accountability for violations, including access to justice and reparations for survivors”, concluded Bahous.    http://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/press-release/2025/10/wars-on-women-escalate-as-global-conflicts-reach-record-highs    Conflict plunged 63 million children into hunger in 2025. (Save the Children)    Of the around 118 million children plunged into hunger so far in 2025, around 63 million – over half - were forced into this situation by conflict as opposed to drought or environmental or economic pressures, according to a new data analysis by Save the Children on World Food Day.    Save the Children analysed data from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the world’s leading authority on hunger monitoring, and found that conflict was a driving cause for the more severe forms of hunger in children in 2025.    Of the 18 million children pushed into emergency levels of hunger in over 35 crises (IPC level 4+), 11 million, or over six in ten (61%), were in countries where conflict is the main driver of hunger, highlighting the role of violence and war in the world’s worst food crises.    Globally, one in six children live in an area affected by conflict – compared to around 10% a decade ago. Conflict remains the main driver of hunger worldwide and has a devastating impact on people’s ability to grow or buy food, forces families from their homes and destroys farmland and infrastructure. In some of the worst cases, starvation is used as a method of warfare.    In Sudan and Gaza, conflict - coupled with severely restricted access and denials of aid - triggered famine classifications in 2024 and 2025 respectively, forcing children into the most extreme forms of hunger. Over half a million people in Gaza, and 638,000 people in Sudan - half of which are children in both places - face catastrophic hunger and a heightened risk of death, while around half a million more children in Gaza and 3.8 million in Sudan were found to be just one step away from catastrophe.    Hannah Stephenson, Save the Children’s head of advocacy for hunger and nutrition said:    “2025 has been a devastating year for the children living in the world’s worst conflict zones, with conflict pushing over 60 million children into hunger, including over 11 million who face emergency levels of hunger that necessitate desperate survival measures to stave off the risk of death.    “In the twenty-first century, famine is manmade and preventable. No child should die because of hunger or malnutrition today. Without enough food or the right nutrition. The international community has the power to stop hunger crises by seeking an end to the conflicts that drive them, fiercely protecting and investing in the first 1,000 days of life where action can make all the difference, and building more resilient food and health systems. Ending hunger requires urgent political solutions to resolve these conflicts and guarantee unrestricted humanitarian access.”    http://www.savethechildren.net/news/conflict-plunged-63-million-children-hunger-2025    The Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) has released the Protection of Civilians Trends Report and Civilian Protection Index, which documents the experiences of civilians living through conflict and extreme violence in 2024. The report reveals a continued and alarming deterioration in the global protection environment.    “By nearly every measure or issue we considered, civilians fared worse in 2024 than 2023,” said Lauren Spink, CIVIC’s Senior Research Advisor and lead on the project. “Civilian casualties, sexual violence, forced displacement, attacks on children and healthcare all increased in 2024, leaving civilians in many countries in desperate situations.”    Drawing on data, expert analysis, and civil society perspectives, the report sheds light on the ways civilians have been affected not only by direct attacks, but also the reverberating effects of conflict, such as loss of access to school for children and livelihoods for adults.    “Civilians are facing growing and intersecting threats —from the expanded use of drones and automated weapons systems without adequate safeguards to the spread of disinformation and the effects of climate change,” said Spink. “States and international organizations must act now to adapt their policies and tools to these evolving realities.”    The Civilian Protection Index, developed in collaboration with the Institute for Economics and Peace, assesses protection conditions across 163 countries using 15 indicators. These include measures of direct violence—such as civilian casualties and sexual violence—alongside other elements of a protective environment, such as trust in security forces and the quality of civic space.    CIVIC’s Executive Director, Hichem Khadhraoui, underscored the urgency of the findings: “This report is both a warning and a call to action,” said Khadhraoui.“The data shows civilians are bearing the brunt of today’s conflicts, but it also highlights where change is possible. States, armed actors, and international partners must recommit to protecting civilians—not in words, but through practical, sustained action.”    http://www.civilianprotectiontrends.org/ http://reliefweb.int/report/world/civics-2024-trends-report-finds-global-civilian-protection-sharp-decline    Oct. 2025    One in three organizations have suspended or shut down programmes on ending violence against women due to funding cuts. (UN Women, agencies)    More than a third of organizations surveyed, 34 per cent, have suspended or shut down programmes to end violence against women and girls and more than 40 per cent have scaled back or closed life-saving services such as shelters, legal aid, psychosocial and healthcare support due to immediate funding gaps. 78 per cent reported reduced access to essential services for survivors, while 59 per cent perceived an increase in impunity and normalization of violence. Almost one in four said they had to suspend or completely halt interventions designed to prevent violence before it occurs.    “Women’s rights organizations are the backbone of progress on violence against women, yet they are being pushed to the brink. We cannot allow funding cuts to erase decades of hard-won gains. We call on governments and donors to ringfence, expand, and make funding more flexible. Without sustained investment, violence against women and girls will only rise”, said Kalliopi Mingeirou, Chief of the Ending Violence Against Women and Girls section, UN Women.    Violence against women and girls remains one of the most widespread human rights violations worldwide. An estimated 736 million women—almost one in three—have experienced physical or sexual violence, most often at the hands of an intimate partner.    Earlier this year, UN Women warned that most women-led organizations in crisis settings were facing severe funding cuts, with nearly half at risk of closure—a warning now echoed in the findings of At Risk and Underfunded.    The report’s findings also highlight that only five per cent of organizations anticipate being able to sustain operations for two years or longer. 85 per cent predict severe backsliding in laws and protections for women and girls, and 57 per cent report serious concerns about rising risks for women human rights defenders.    Funding shortfalls are happening alongside a growing backlash against women’s rights in one in four countries. As organizations lose funding, many are forced to focus only on basic services instead of long-term advocacy that drives real change.    At Risk and Underfunded comes as the world marks 30 years since the Beijing declaration and platform for action, a progressive roadmap agreed by Governments to achieve gender equality and women’s rights, that had ending violence against women at its heart.    http://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/press-release/2025/10/one-in-three-organizations-have-suspended-or-shut-down-programmes-on-ending-violence-against-women-due-to-funding-cuts    Oct. 2025    In advance of the October 2025 UN Security Council Open Debate on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), this open letter was sent to UN Member States on behalf of 661 civil society signatories from 106 countries working on issues related to gender equality and women’s rights, peace and security, human rights, humanitarian assistance, and protection of civilians. The letter calls on the Security Council and Member States to take decisive action to defend the fundamental tenets of the WPS agenda.    http://www.globalr2p.org/publications/2025-open-letter-to-the-un-in-advance-of-the-annual-open-debate-on-wps/ http://www.prio.org/research/topics/gender    Annual Report of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Dr. Najat Maalla M’jid to the UN General Assembly.    Global overview of trends, emerging issues and challenges    Multidimensional conflicts, including across regions, protracted conflicts, the emergence of new armed actors and the use of new technology have continued to adversely affect the protection of children in conflict situations. Grave violations against children have continued to increase.    In 2024, for the third consecutive year, grave violations against children in armed conflict reached unprecedented levels, with a staggering 25 per cent surge compared with 2023. Children bore the brunt of relentless hostilities, indiscriminate attacks, failure to respect international humanitarian and international human rights law, disregard for ceasefires and peace agreements, and deepening humanitarian crises.    The United Nations officially verified 41,370 grave violations, of which 36,221 were committed in 2024 and 5,149 were committed in previous years but verified in 2024 only. Violations affected 22,495 children, one third of them girls. While non -State armed groups were responsible for nearly 50 per cent of these violations, government forces were the main perpetrators of the killing and maiming of children, attacks on schools and hospitals, and the denial of humanitarian access.    A 17 per cent increase in the number of children subjected to multiple violations through the convergence of abduction, recruitment and sexual violence represented an alarming escalation in brutality.    United Nations data showed a persistent and blatant pattern of grave violations induced by a lack of respect for the special protections afforded to children by conflict-affected States and armed groups, compounded by the use of private security companies.    Warfare strategies included deliberate attacks on children, the deployment of increasingly destructive weapons, the use of explosive weapons in populated areas and the systematic exploitation of children through their participation in hostilities.    Deliberate harm was inflicted on children, instilling terror among entire communities, affecting their mental health and recovery opportunities, and driving mass and prolonged displacement. The urbanization of conflicts and their intensification across borders, the climate emergency and regional insecurity increased the vulnerabilities of children.    State and non-State armed actors continued to commit grave violations with impunity, depriving children not only of justice and reparations but also of their fundamental rights to life, protection, education, health and a future.    The violations verified at the highest levels were the killing (4,676) and maiming (7,291) of 11,967 children, denial of humanitarian access (7,906), the recruitment and use of children (7,402) and abduction (4,573). The number of children detained for actual or alleged association with armed groups, including those that are currently under sanctions enacted by the UN Security Council, or for national security reasons surged from 2,491 in 2023 to 3,018 in 2024, further depriving children of their rights.    The highest number of grave violations were verified in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (8,554), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (4,043), Somalia (2,568), Nigeria (2,436) and Haiti (2,269). The sharpest percentage increase in violations was verified in Lebanon (545 per cent), Mozambique (525 per cent), Haiti (490 per cent), Ethiopia (235 percent) and Ukraine (105 per cent).    Children were killed and maimed in appalling numbers using explosive ordnance, including explosive remnants of war, mines, explosive weapons in populated areas and improvised explosive devices, and by crossfire between parties to conflict, often creating lifelong disabilities, if not death. The conflicts in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Sudan, Myanmar and Burkina Faso were the deadliest for children.    Denials of humanitarian access reached an alarming scale, with more humanitarian workers, including United Nations personnel, killed in 2024 than ever before and unprecedented numbers of children prevented from gaining access to basic and humanitarian services, including life-saving services.    Parties to conflict attacked aid convoys and personnel and water and sanitation facilities, arbitrarily detained humanitarian personnel, restricted humanitarian activities and movements, adopted bureaucratic and administrative barriers, and interfered with humanitarian operations, leaving children without access to healthcare, education, protection and life -saving assistance.    The destruction of critical infrastructure deepened crises and exacerbated malnutrition, preventable and non-preventable diseases, and the displacement of children. The highest numbers of denial of humanitarian access were verified by the United Nations in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Afghanistan and Haiti.    Recruitment and use of children persisted at very high levels, with 7,402 children recruited and used by State and non-State actors, most commonly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria and Somalia. The violation was often compounded by other grave violations, such as killing and maiming, abduction and sexual violence. Abduction was the fourth highest verified violation in 2024, affecting 4,573 children. Nigeria, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo had the highest numbers of abducted children.    Rape and other forms of sexual violence increased by 35 per cent compared with 2023, with cases of gang rape increasing dramatically, underlining the systematic use of sexual violence as a deliberate tactic of warfare to enhance territorial control, displace populations and target the specific ethnicity or gender of children, among others. Girls were disproportionately affected by sexual violence.    The persistent underreporting of this violation due to stigma, risk of retaliation, harmful social norms, absence or lack of access to services, and impunity and safety concerns in a context of limited and eroding legal protections underscores the urgent need for age - and gender-sensitive responses and strengthened accountability mechanisms. The United Nations verified the highest numbers of cases of sexual violence in Haiti, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.    Attacks on civilian objects and infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, significantly heightened the vulnerability of children and increased by 44 per cent during 2024. A total of 2,374 attacks on schools and hospitals were verified, with most attacks verified in Ukraine, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Haiti.    Similar trends and patterns with regard to grave violations against children were observed in the first half of 2025. The drawdown of United Nations peace operations and the global decrease in humanitarian funding had a negative impact on child protection by significantly reducing the capacity of the United Nations to verify and respond to grave violations.    Sustained and reinforced funding for child protection should be prioritized at a time of unprecedented humanitarian and protection needs of children. Any further reductions in resources will have direct and devastating impacts on the lives of conflict-affected children, straining operations and protection capacities and limiting children’s access to life-saving assistance.    * Note: The United Nations officially verified statistics of grave violations against children cited in this report represent a minuscule fraction of the reality of the suffering children are experiencing in current conflict situations. Unicef reports that over 473 million children—more than one in six globally—now live in areas affected by conflict, with the world experiencing the highest number of conflicts since World War II. The percentage of the world’s children living in conflict zones has doubled—from around 10 per cent in the 1990s to almost 19 per cent today.    http://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/2025/08/protecting-children-from-conflict-an-unwavering-priority-amidst-surge-in-conflict-worldwide/ http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/not-new-normal-2024-one-worst-years-unicefs-history-children-conflict http://data.stopwaronchildren.org/ http://www.warchild.net/news/ http://www.forchildreninwar.org/press-release/ http://www.savethechildren.net/news/number-children-facing-malnutrition-conflict-fails-improve-global-goal-end-hunger-track http://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2025/09/even-times-conflict-childrens-rights-are-not-optional    Sep. 2025    On the International Day to Protect Education from Attack, the Inter-agency for Education in Emergencies (INEE) and the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (the Alliance) jointly condemn all forms of attacks on education and call for all parties to conflict to respect international humanitarian law, to protect schools from attack and military use, and to ensure children can continue their education in safe and protective school environments.    Schools, students, and teachers are not targets. From 2023 to 2024, and now into 2025 we have seen an alarming increase in attacks on education with schools deliberately targeted and destroyed. In this year’s Report of the Secretary General on Children and Armed Conflict, grave violations against children increased by 25% from 2023 to 2024. Globally, 234 million school-age children are affected by conflict, with 85 million children completely out of school due to destruction, attack and displacement. This has to stop.    When education facilities are destroyed, it’s not just physical buildings that are lost, it’s the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of thousands of children; for many children affected by conflict and crisis, school is one of the few places they can feel safe and protected. It’s a place where they not only receive education, but also, psychosocial support, a chance to safely socialise with their peers and, in some cases, food, immunisations, and clean water and sanitation.    Quality education functions as a protective service, where child protection and education actors can work together. School can protect children from exposure to child protection risks, including violence and abuse, recruitment into armed forces, child labour, and early marriage. If schools are closed due to attack or military use, children lose the protection they provide.    In too many conflicts in the world today education systems are systematically targeted, from Palestine, to Sudan, to Ukraine, schools are attacked, students and teachers killed and children are denied their right to education.    In Gaza, all schools have been closed with nearly 97% of school buildings damaged or destroyed, meaning 625,000 students have nowhere to learn. In Sudan, attacks on education have increased fourfold year on year, with most schools closed and 18 million children out of school due to the conflict. In Ukraine 3,524 educational institutions have been damaged since the start of the full-scale invasion, with 360 completely destroyed.    These devastating figures are just some examples of the extent to which attacks on schools are increasing and how conflict is disrupting education around the world.    Together, INEE and the Alliance call on parties to conflict to ensure children’s rights are respected as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and that international humanitarian law is upheld, that schools remain safe from attack and military use, and students and teachers are protected as civilians.    We call on all states to use their influence to ensure this basic level of protection for children and education systems is enforced, and violators held to account.    We also call on states to recognise and endorse the Safe Schools Declaration and guidelines, now in their 10th year; they ask states to commit to keeping schools, teachers and students safe and accessible during conflict.    Finally, INEE and the Alliance call upon humanitarian leadership, donors, and governments to ensure integrated child protection and education responses are prioritised and funded for the growing number of children impacted by crisis and conflict so they can be better protected, and so education can continue safely.    http://alliancecpha.org/en/technical-materials/joint-statement-international-day-protect-education-attack http://protectingeducation.org/news/education-under-fire/ http://eua2024.protectingeducation.org/ http://ssd.protectingeducation.org/    “The deliberate targeting or military use of schools is a disregard for one of humanity’s most vital institutions,” warned Farida Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on the right to education, presenting her report on education in armed conflict to the General Assembly today.    “States must treat attacks on education, protected facilities and personnel as serious violations of international law,” Shaheed said.    The Special Rapporteur noted that international norms protecting the fundamental right to education continue to apply in situations of armed conflict.    “The obligation to respect, protect and fulfill the right to education remains in force. Protections do not cease,” she said.    Shaheed said the collapse of education systems undermines entire societies, perpetuating cycles of violence and poverty. “In war, a functioning school can mean safety from recruitment, sexual violence, child labour, forced and early marriage and exploitation. It can offer psychosocial healing and preserve the continuity of communities,” she said.    Shaheed presented a policy brief on education in armed conflict and outlined eight policy actions to protect education in armed conflict, from prohibiting attacks and military use of schools and criminalising such acts under national law, to strengthening accountability, remedy and reparations, prevention of ideological manipulation of education, enhanced data collection and ensuring continuous, inclusive and quality education during crises.    She called on the international community to translate commitments into action: adopt national laws, prosecute perpetrators, fund education in emergencies and endorse and implement the Safe Schools Declaration.    The call comes amid an alarming rise in attacks on schools and protected civilian school personnel. She noted that global conflict has intensified, with nearly 130 armed conflicts recorded in 2024 and over 6,000 reported attacks on schools and universities, students and educators. Globally, an estimated 234 million school-aged children and adolescents, are affected by crises, including armed conflict. Alarmingly, this number has increased by at least 35 million in the past three years. More than 52 million children in conflict-affected countries were out of school last year.    “Education cannot be a casualty of war,” Shaheed said. “Protecting education is not only a humanitarian imperative, it is a legal duty and a moral test of our shared humanity. Every destroyed school is a wound to the future. Each child denied learning is a warning that peace is slipping away.”    http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/10/education-during-armed-conflict-offers-lifeline-protection-stability-and http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc5941-right-be-safe-education-report-special-rapporteur-right http://www.ohchr.org/en/events/forums/2025/2025-social-forum    28 May 2025    Women and girls in Sudan’s Darfur region are at near-constant risk of sexual violence, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned today. The true scale of this crisis remains difficult to quantify, as services remain limited, and people face barriers in seeking treatment or speaking about their ordeal.    Yet all the victims and survivors who speak with MSF teams in Darfur and across the border in Chad share horrifying stories of brutal violence and rape. With men and boys also at risk, the extent of the suffering is beyond comprehension.    “Women and girls do not feel safe anywhere. They are attacked in their own homes, when fleeing violence, getting food, collecting firewood, working in the fields. They tell us they feel trapped,” says Claire San Filippo, MSF emergency coordinator.    “These attacks are heinous and cruel, often involving multiple perpetrators. This must stop. Sexual violence is not a natural or inevitable consequence of war, it can constitute a war crime, a form of torture, and a crime against humanity. The warring parties must hold their fighters accountable and protect people from this sickening violence.    Services for survivors must immediately be scaled up, so survivors have access to the medical treatment and psychological care they desperately need.”    Sexual violence has become so widespread in Darfur that many people chillingly speak about it as unavoidable.    “Some people came at night to rape the women and take everything. I heard some women being raped at night. The men were hiding in toilets or in some rooms where they could close the doors. The women didn’t hide because it was just beating and rape for us, but the men would get killed,” a woman told MSF’s team in West Darfur.    It is not only during attacks on villages and towns or during the journey to safety that people have been raped and beaten. Limited humanitarian assistance is forcing people to take risks to survive.    People are walking long distances to meet their basic needs and taking work in dangerous places. Others decide against taking the risk but are then cut off from their sources of income, further reducing their access to water, food and healthcare. This itself is no guarantee of safety, as people can be attacked at home as well.    MSF provided care to 659 survivors of sexual violence in South Darfur between January 2024 and March 2025:    86% reported that they were raped. 94% of survivors were women and girls. 56% said they were assaulted by a non-civilian (by a member of military, police or other security forces or non-state armed groups). 55% reported additional physical violence during the assault. 34% faced sexual violence while working in, or travelling to, the fields. 31% were younger than 18, with 7% younger than 10 years old and 2.6% younger than 5 years old.    These disturbing statistics are likely an underestimate of the true scale of sexual violence in South Darfur.    The situation is similar in other places where MSF is able to provide care for victims and survivors such as eastern Chad, which currently hosts over 800,000 Sudanese refugees. In Adre, almost half of the 44 victims and survivors treated by MSF since January 2025 were children. In Wadi Fira Province, 94 victims and survivors were treated between January and March 2025, 81 under the age of 18. The testimonies of patients and caregivers in both eastern Chad and Sudan’s Darfur region bear this out.    “Three months ago, there was a little girl of 13 years old who was raped by three men…They caught her and raped her, then they abandoned her in the valley... They called some people to carry the girl to the hospital. I was one of them,” one man told MSF’s team in Murnei, West Darfur.    Many survivors report being raped by more than one person. In Metche in eastern Chad, 11 out of 24 victims and survivors treated between January and March 2025 were attacked by multiple assailants.    “When we arrived in Kulbus, we saw a group of three women with some RSF [Rapid Support Forces] men guarding them. The RSF also ordered us to stay with them,” says a 17-year-old survivor. “They told us, ‘You are the wives of the Sudanese army or their girls.’ … Then they beat us, and they raped us right there on the road, in public. There were nine RSF men. Seven of them raped me. I wanted to lose my memory after that.”    In some cases, the attackers directly accused the survivors of supporting the other side.    “I have a certificate for first aid nursing. [When they stopped us], the RSF asked me to give them my bag. When they saw the certificate inside, they told me, ‘You want to heal the Sudanese army, you want to cure the enemy!’ Then they burnt my certificate, and they took me away to rape me,” says one woman. “They told everyone else to stay on the floor. I was with some other women, including my sister. They only raped me, because of my certificate.”    It is vital that victims and survivors access services after the attack, as sexual violence is a medical emergency. The immediate and long-lasting physical and psychological consequences which can be life-threatening.    Yet survivors struggle to access medical care and protection because of a lack of services, limited awareness of the few services that exist, the high cost of traveling to facilities, and a reluctance to speak about the abuse due to shame, fear of stigma or retaliation.    “I cannot say anything to the community because it will be a shame for my family. So, I didn’t say anything about what happened to me before today. I’m only asking for medical help now,” says a survivor in eastern Chad. “I was too afraid to go to the hospital. My family told me, ‘Don’t tell anybody’.”    Where services exist, survivors need clear and accessible referral pathways to get the help they need. In South Darfur, the state with the greatest number of displaced people in Sudan, in late 2024, MSF added a community-based component to our care for survivors of sexual violence.    Midwives and community healthcare workers were trained and equipped to provide emergency contraceptives and psychological first aid to survivors. They also supported survivors’ referral to clinics and hospitals where MSF teams work for comprehensive care. Since the addition of this community-based model, we have seen a steep increase in women and adolescents seeking care.    MSF teams continue to see new survivors of sexual violence. In Tawila, where people continue to arrive after attacks on Zamzam camp and in El Fasher, North Darfur, the hospital received 48 survivors of sexual violence between January and the beginning of May, most of them since the start of fighting in Zamzam camp in April.    “Access to services for survivors of sexual violence is lacking and, like most humanitarian and healthcare services in Sudan, must urgently be scaled up. People – mostly women and girls – who suffer sexual violence urgently need medical care, including psychological support, and protection services,” says Ruth Kauffman, MSF emergency medical manager.    “Care must be tailored from the outset to mitigate against the many overwhelming barriers survivors face when seeking medical care in the aftermath of sexual violence.”    Brutal attacks and rapes must stop, warring parties must ensure that civilians are protected, respecting their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians, and medical and humanitarian services for victims and survivors of sexual violence must be scaled up urgently in Darfur and eastern Chad.    http://tinyurl.com/mpbyba67 http://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/sexual-violence-sudan-they-beat-us-and-they-raped-us-right-there-road-public-enar http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/06/1164621 http://www.unfpa.org/news/widespread-guns-and-bullets-sexual-violence-used-terrorize-sudans-women-and-girls    Sexual violence poses growing threat in eastern DRC    The UN Office for the Coordinations of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that sexual violence is on the rise in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.    Across the country, humanitarian partners have reported more than 67,000 cases of gender-based violence between January and April of this year. This represents a 38 per cent increase compared to the same period in the previous year.    Only 58 per cent of the victims of the documented cases received appropriate medical care within the critical 72-hour timeframe.    More than 90 per cent of the reported cases nationwide are in the conflict-affected eastern provinces, where the response is further hindered by insecurity and aid cuts.    According to partners working in health, several health facilities in South Kivu province are facing shortages of post-exposure prophylaxis kits, mainly due to security constraints. In addition, several partners involved in responding to gender-based violence in South Kivu have closed their programmes since March due to aid cuts.    In South Kivu’s Uvira territory alone, local authorities have documented more than 100 cases of sexual violence from February to April 2025, with further attacks being reported in May.    http://www.unocha.org/news/todays-top-news-occupied-palestinian-territory-yemen-democratic-republic-congo-sudan http://www.msf.org/sexual-violence-eastern-drc-persistent-emergency http://www.care.org/media-and-press/emergency-kits-run-out-alongside-hope-for-drc-sexual-violence-survivors/    UN urges for immediate action as sexual violence surges amid gang violence in Haiti    The UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (SRSG-SVC), Ms. Pramila Patten, expresses grave concerns over the escalating levels of sexual violence being inflicted upon women and girls amid the worsening gang violence in Haiti.    The situation has reached a breaking point. Since the beginning of the year, reports of sexual violence – particularly rape and gang rape – have surged at an alarming rate.    “These heinous crimes are overwhelmingly concentrated in areas under gang control, where State presence is virtually nonexistent. In many instances, sexual violence is being used deliberately and systematically to assert dominance and punish communities,” stated Special Representative Patten.    Women and girls are increasingly subjected to sexual violence alongside other grave crimes, including kidnapping and killings during gang attacks. Survivors are often assaulted in their own homes or public spaces.    Alarmingly, the past eight months have seen a dramatic rise in documented cases of sexual slavery, further exemplifying the brutal oppression of women and girls.    “I condemn the widespread atrocities perpetrated by armed gangs, including conflict-related sexual violence and trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Concrete and immediate measures are essential to enhance the protection of Haitians, prioritizing those most at risk”.    The full deployment of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission to reinforce Haitian national security forces, alongside the enforcement of UN Security Council sanctions aimed at crippling gang operations – particularly the illicit arms flow fueling these crimes – has never been more urgent.    Widespread insecurity and the broader humanitarian crisis are unraveling the social fabric, displacing thousands and pushing many into overcrowded and unsafe shelters. Access to essential services, including medical and psychological support for survivors, remains severely limited.    The closure of critical health facilities due to insecurity has further strained an already fragile system while impunity for these crimes emboldens perpetrators. Urgent and decisive action is required.    Ending impunity is a fundamental step in breaking the cycle of violence and restoring dignity and safety to Haiti’s women and girls.    * Guardian News: Tens of thousands of Tigrayan women report brutal wartime abuse by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers, such as gang-rape and the insertion of objects into their uteruses. But justice seems a distant prospect. Warning: this article contains distressing testimony and images.    http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jun/30/sexual-violence-tigray-women-abuse-gang-rape-ethiopia-eritrea http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jul/31/mass-rape-forced-pregnancy-sexual-torture-in-tigray-ethiopian-eritrean-forces-crimes-against-humanity-report http://phr.org/our-work/resources/you-will-never-be-able-to-give-birth-conflict-related-sexual-and-reproductive-violence-in-ethiopia/ http://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/press-release/help-us-live-with-dignity-not-just-survive-new-un-report-calls-for-scaled-up-comprehensive-services-amid-unprecedented-levels-of-conflict-related-sexual-violence http://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/report/report-of-the-secretary-general-on-conflict-related-sexual-violence/SG-Report-2024-FINAL.pdf    http://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/press-release/un-special-representative-patten-urges-for-immediate-action-as-sexual-violence-surges-amid-gang-violence-in-haiti/ http://www.savethechildren.net/news/sexual-violence-against-children-conflict-surges-50-5-years-worst-level-ever http://www.unfpa.org/press/ending-sexual-violence-conflict-breaking-cycle-healing-scars-and-building-world-peace http://www.unfpa.org/dont-let-the-lights-go-out http://www.unfpa.org/emergencies http://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/in-their-own-words-voices-of-survivors-of-conflict-related-sexual-violence-and-service-providers http://plan-international.org/news/2025/08/15/sexual-violence-must-never-used-weapon-war/ Visit the related web page
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