The UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, has warned that nearly 10,000 verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence were recorded worldwide in 2025.
This she described as a sharp escalation in the use of rape and other forms of sexual abuse as weapons of war.
Releasing the United Nations annual report at UN Headquarters, Patten said: “In 2025 documented cases of sexual violence as a tactic of war, torture, terrorism and political repression marked by extreme brutality and overwhelmingly targeting women and girls increased dramatically.”
It was detailed in a Friday report on the UN website titled, “Conflict-related sexual violence cases more than doubled in 2025, UN warns,” and obtained by our correspondent on Saturday.
The report verified 9,788 cases across 21 conflict-affected countries, but stressed that the figure represents only documented incidents and does not capture the full scale of abuse.
