More than 79 million girls in sub-Saharan Africa raped and sexually abused: UN | News about sexual violence

A UNICEF report shows that more than 370 million girls worldwide have experienced sexual violence before the age of 18.

The United Nations children’s agency says one in eight girls and young women around the world have experienced 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, which found that 79 million girls – one in five – in sub-Saharan countries affected by conflict and insecurity had experienced sexual abuse or rape before turning 18.

“It’s terrifying,” said Nankali Maksud, a child violence specialist at UNICEF, based in Nairobi, Kenya. “It’s generations of trauma.”

Girls who suffered the trauma of sexual abuse were often unable to learn in school, she said.

Globally, UNICEF estimates that sexual violence has affected around 370 million – or one in eight – girls and young women.

That number rises to 650 million, or one in five, when “contactless” forms of sexual violence, such as online or verbal abuse, are taken into account, according to the agency’s report published Wednesday.

According to the report, while girls and women are the worst affected, 240 to 310 million boys and men, or about one in 11, have been raped or sexually abused during childhood.

“Sexual violence against children is a stain on our moral conscience,” said Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director.

“It causes deep and lasting trauma, often at the hands of someone the child knows and trusts, in places where they should feel safe,” she said.

The numbers were highest in ‘fragile environments’, including those with weak institutions, where UN peacekeepers 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, data shows that sexual violence against children is pervasive and crosses geographic, 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 East and Southeast Asia, 73 million in Central and South Asia, 68 million in Europe and North America, 45 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, 29 million in North Africa and West Asia, and 6 million in Oceania.

The publication of such a figure is a first, calculated from national data and international survey programs from 2010 to 2022, said Claudia Cappa, UNICEF’s chief statistician.

She said there were inevitably gaps in the data, as well as under-reporting from some countries.