This text has been automatically translated, it may contain errors or inaccuracies.

More than 500 million children live in areas of armed conflict

According to the NGO Save the Children, more than 520 million children lived in conflict zones by 2024. Africa is the most affected region: 32% of all children on that continent live under armed violence. By 2024, an average of 78 children were killed, abducted, sexually assaulted and mutilated on a daily basis, among others.

MADRID, 04/11/2025.- Con tan solo un año y medio, Manal (c, abajo) recogió lo que creía que era un juguete frente a su casa en Taiz, en Yemen. Era un artefacto explosivo sin detonar. La explosión le destrozó la manita. Su padre, Mousa (d), recuerda: «Pensábamos que había muerto». En el hospital, Manal necesitaba una cirugía urgente, pero la familia no podía costearla. Save the Children intervino y apoyó a Manal durante dos cirugías que le salvaron parte de la mano. La cantidad de niños que viven expuestos a la violencia en zonas de conflictos armados supuso en 2024 una cifra récord de 520 millones de menores, cifra que por tercer año consecutivo marca un récord histórico, según el informe que desvela este martes la ONG Save the Children. EFE/Save the Children/Al-Baraa Mansoor SÓLO USO EDITORIAL, PERMITIDO SU USO SÓLO EN RELACIÓN A LA INFORMACIÓN QUE APARECE EN EL PIE DE FOTO (CRÉDITO OBLIGATORIO) — Image of three Yemeni children. Photo: EFE/Save the Children/Al-Baraa Mansoor

EITB

2025/11/04 - 09:03

Updated

2025/11/04 - 09:03

According to a report released this Tuesday by the NGO Save the Children, 520 million childrenlived in areas of armed conflict by 2024.

This means that one in five children in the world live in a conflict zone, andthat Africa is the most affected region, with 218 million children affected by armed violence on that continent, or 32% of the total childhood on that continent.

Every day of 2024, 78 minors were, on average, victims of serious violations of their rights: murders, kidnappings, sexual assaults, mutilations, forced recruitment for combat or assaults on their schools.

There were 41 763 serious UN confirmed cases worldwide, 30 per cent more than a year earlier.

Half of the cases of child rights violations are being dealt with in four Edi wars: Palestine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger and Somalia. Palestinian children are the most affected: one in three children killed or mutilated in the world in 2024 was Palestinian.

Moreover, there is a terrible connection between violence against children and military expenditure: the countries with the largest number of unprotected children are, at the same time, the countries with the highest spending on arms.

The prospects are not good, because rich countries are reducing their funding to humanitarian aid, and the UN itself is immersed in a period of reforms and savings that will leave some of the current child protection in the world uncovered.