Overview
- Nearly one in five children worldwide now grows up in conflict or crisis areas, the highest proportion on record, according to UNICEF’s year-end assessment.
- The United Nations verified 41,370 grave violations of children’s rights in 2024, a 25 percent increase that includes killings, maiming, abductions, recruitment and sexual violence.
- Famine was confirmed in 2025 in parts of Sudan and the Gaza Strip; famine conditions in Gaza later eased, yet about 100,000 children there still face high acute food insecurity.
- UNICEF reports more than 35,000 cases of sexualized violence against children in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the first nine months of 2025, alongside the country’s worst cholera outbreak in 25 years.
- UN and UNICEF data show 43 million children under five are acutely malnourished, 150 million are chronically malnourished, and 417 million children face severe deprivations, with underfunded aid and constrained access worsening needs.