The United Nations children’s agency says one in eight girls and young women across the world have endured rape and sexual violence, with the highest number of victims recorded in sub-Saharan Africa.
UNICEF published its first-ever global estimate on sexual violence against children, revealing that 79 million girls – one in five – in sub-Saharan countries hit by conflict and insecurity had experienced sexual assault or rape before turning 18.
“It’s terrifying,” said Nankali Maksud, a child violence specialist at UNICEF based in Nairobi, Kenya. “It is generations of trauma.”
Girls who had suffered the trauma of sexual abuse were often unable to learn at school, she said.
Globally, UNICEF estimates that sexual violence has affected some 370 million – or one in eight – girls and young women.
The number rises to 650 million, or one in five, when taking into account “non-contact” forms of sexual violence, such as online or verbal abuse, according to the agency’s report published on Wednesday.
The report said that while girls and women were worst affected, 240 to 310 million boys and men, or about one in 11, have experienced rape or sexual assault during childhood.
“Sexual violence against children is a stain on our moral conscience,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
“It inflicts deep and lasting trauma, often by someone the child knows and trusts, in places where they should feel safe,” she said.
Numbers were highest in “fragile settings”, including those with weak institutions, where UN peacekeeping forces are present or where there are large numbers of refugees.
“We are witnessing horrific sexual violence in conflict zones, where rape and gender-based violence are often used as weapons of war,” said Russell.
However, the data showed that sexual violence against children is pervasive, cutting across geographical, cultural, and economic boundaries.
Sub-Saharan Africa had the highest number of victims, with 79 million girls and women affected, followed by 75 million in Eastern and Southeastern Asia, 73 million in Central and Southern Asia, 68 million in Europe and Northern America, 45 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, 29 million in Northern Africa and Western Asia, and 6 million in Oceania.
The release of such a figure is a first, calculated using national data and international survey programmes from 2010 to 2022, said Claudia Cappa, UNICEF chief statistician.
She said there were inevitable holes in the data, as well as under-reporting from some countries.
