One in five children worldwide lived amid active warfare last year, as the number of minors in conflict zones climbed to about 520 million in 2024 – 47 million more than in 2023 and the highest since tracking began in 2005, according to a Save the Children report released Tuesday.
The aid group’s annual Stop the War on Children study, drawing on datasets from PRIO and the United Nations, says the surge reflects both the spread and intensity of fighting.
The world recorded 61 state-based armed conflicts in 2024 – the most since 1946 – while verified grave violations against children jumped 30% to 41,763, a record.
Those U.N.-tracked abuses include killing and maiming, recruitment and use by armed forces or groups, abduction, rape and other sexual violence, attacks on schools and hospitals, and denial of humanitarian access.
Save the Children says more than half of last year’s documented violations were concentrated in four hot spots: the occupied Palestinian territories (primarily Gaza), the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Somalia.
Gaza, gripped by Israeli bombardments since Oct. 7, 2023, accounted for a disproportionate share of child deaths and injuries and a large fraction of attacks on schools and hospitals.
In eastern DRC, long-running violence involving myriad armed groups drove spikes in child recruitment and abductions.
In Nigeria and Somalia, abductions and sexual violence remained acute as armed groups and criminal networks targeted children.
The geography of risk shifted, too.
Africa became the epicenter in 2024, with an estimated 218 million children exposed to conflict – surpassing the Middle East for the first time since 2007 – as wars in Sudan, the Sahel and the Great Lakes region intensified.
Globally, Save the Children notes that the "conflict zone” designation covers anyone living within 50 kilometers of at least one recorded conflict incident in a given year, a radius designed to capture spillover effects such as shelling, displacement and aid blockades.
Aid officials argue that the scale of harm reflects a political choice.
Florian Westphal, chief executive of Save the Children Germany, called the situation "scandalous,” saying governments have poured money into militaries while underfunding child protection and humanitarian relief.
According to the report, global military expenditures hit a record in 2024, while child-focused appeals were only partially funded.
Inger Ashing, the group’s international CEO, said real security cannot be measured by "weapons or walls,” but by whether children can live, learn and heal without fear.
The group urges immediate action: uphold international humanitarian law; halt arms transfers to parties committing grave violations; guarantee unhindered humanitarian access; strengthen UN accountability mechanisms, including listings in the Secretary-General’s annual Children and Armed Conflict report; and invest in prevention and recovery – from mine clearance to mental-health care, education in emergencies and reintegration programs for children recruited by armed groups.
The report also calls for shifting more funding to local responders and embedding child-safeguarding standards in cease-fires and peace talks.
Behind the statistics, Save the Children warns, are long-term scars: lost schooling, stunted growth from malnutrition, trauma, disability and the intergenerational costs of destroyed clinics and classrooms.
With conflicts proliferating and aid budgets strained, the organization says 2025 will test whether governments reframe "security” to put children at the center – or allow another record year of childhoods cut short by war.