The escalation arises amid ongoing conflict in eastern DRC, leading to mass displacement, weakened protection systems, and a worsening humanitarian crisis, increasing risks of abuse, exploitation, and trauma for children.
UNICEF has consistently urged for an end to hostilities and unimpeded humanitarian access, stressing that conflict-induced displacement and poverty heighten violence against children countrywide.
The report, “The hidden scars of conflict and silence,” documents pervasive cases across all provinces, indicating a crisis extending beyond active conflict zones. The largest numbers are in the eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri, where insecurity, displacement, and weak protection services heighten children’s vulnerability.
Significant cases are also noted in Kinshasa and the Kasai regions, where poverty, food insecurity, and school dropout rates increase risks of exploitation, early marriage, and abuse.
Data from child protection and gender-based violence providers reveal over 35,000 cases of sexual violence against children in the first nine months of 2025 alone. In 2024, nearly 45,000 cases were recorded, almost triple the figure in 2022, accounting for almost 40% of all reported sexual violence cases in the country.
UNICEF cautions that actual numbers are likely higher, as fear, stigma, insecurity, and limited service access deter abuse reporting.
The report emphasizes that each statistic reflects a child whose life has been severely impacted by violence.
Survivors recount feelings of shame, isolation, and damaged self-esteem, yet express determination to regain dignity and hope. Their stories, gathered by social workers across several provinces, convey both the crisis’s scale and the resilience of those affected, a resilience that UNICEF insists must inform the response.
“Social workers describe mothers walking for hours to clinics with daughters left unable to walk after assaults,” said Catherine Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF. “Families report that fear of stigma and retaliation often stops them from reporting abuse. Such stories are echoed across provinces, revealing a deep-rooted crisis driven by insecurity, inequality, and fragile support systems.”
Adolescent girls constitute the largest and fastest-growing group among reported cases, although boys also suffer sexual violence, often underrepresented due to stigma and underreporting. Children with disabilities face heightened risks due to physical, social, and communication barriers which increase vulnerability and limit access to care and justice.
The crisis’s magnitude is increasingly voiced by children themselves.
“My role is not in armed conflict,” wrote a child from the DRC to world leaders as part of the Prove It Matters campaign led by the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict.
As 2025 ends, UN Special Representative Vanessa Frazier highlighted that children in the DRC and other conflict zones experience extreme levels of abuse throughout the year.
She noted that 2024 was already the worst year recorded since the mandate’s inception nearly 30 years ago, warning that such harm must not become the norm. She cited the DRC, along with Gaza, Haiti, Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, and Ukraine, as areas where children continue to face “appalling levels of grave violations in 2025.”
“We cannot change the year 2025, but we can act and be determined to change the situation for children affected by armed conflict in 2026,” Ms. Frazier stated.
She urged leaders to listen to children, uphold international law, stop violations, release children involved with armed groups, and enhance funding for child protection, justice, and long-term recovery.
Despite UNICEF and its partners expanding aid between 2022 and 2024, reaching over 24,200 children in the hardest-hit provinces last year, insecurity and global budget cuts have led many safe spaces, mobile clinics, and community protection programs to reduce or cease operations.
By mid-2025, only 23 percent of gender-based violence interventions received funding, compared to 48 percent in 2022, endangering hundreds of thousands of children who may lose access to critical services, including about 300,000 children in eastern conflict zones.
“A protected child is a secure future,” another conflict-affected child conveyed to world leaders through the Prove It Matters campaign.
Leave a Reply