Sexual violence in conflicts surged by 25% last year, with the highest numbers reported in the Central African Republic, Congo, Haiti, Somalia and South Sudan, according to a U.N. report released Thursday.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ annual report recorded more than 4,600 survivors of sexual violence in 2024, with armed groups responsible for the majority of attacks and some perpetrated by government forces. Guterres cautioned that U.N.-verified figures likely underestimate the true global scale of these crimes.
The report’s blacklist identifies 63 government and non-government actors across a dozen countries suspected of committing or enabling rape and other forms of sexual violence in conflict.
More than 70% of the entities listed have appeared on the report’s annex for five years or longer without taking meaningful steps to curb the violence, Guterres said, underscoring persistent impunity.
For the first time, the report includes two parties that have been notified the U.N. has “credible information” that could put them on next year’s blacklist if they don’t take preventive action: Israel’s military and security forces, over allegations of sexual abuse of Palestinians, primarily in prisons and detention facilities, and Russian forces and affiliated armed groups against Ukrainian prisoners of war.
