Conflict-related sexual violence surged by 25% worldwide in 2024, according to a new United Nations report, with the highest number of cases recorded in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Somalia, and South Sudan. UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said 63 state and non-state actors are now listed for credible involvement in patterns of rape, sexual slavery, and other forms of abuse in armed conflicts — a list that will go before the UN Security Council.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo remains among the worst-hit. In eastern Congo’s Kivu region alone, health workers treated more than 17,000 survivors of sexual violence in just five months last year, as clashes between government forces and M23 rebels escalated. The report highlights atrocities including gang rape and sexual enslavement, warning that such crimes remain a “tactic of war” in multiple conflict zones and often go unpunished.
