Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: United Nations – United Nations –
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December 30, 2025 UN
The top news of the day at the UN and around the world: the UN calls for improving the situation for children in crisis zones by 2026; Ukraine has suffered nearly 43 percent of all attacks on healthcare facilities worldwide; sexual violence against children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has become systemic; and tens of thousands of children in Sudan's Northern Darfur suffer from acute malnutrition.
Children in armed conflicts
"My place is not in armed conflict." These words from a child in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are addressed to world leaders. They were quoted in a New Year's message by the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Vanessa Fraser. She noted that in 2025, children in conflict zones, including the DRC, Gaza, Haiti, Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, and Ukraine, were victims of horrific violations. And in 2024, the highest number of grave violations against children was recorded. Fraser called on the international community to act decisively to improve the situation of children in crisis zones in the coming year.
Ukraine: Attacks on medical facilities
Ukraine's healthcare system continues to suffer as a result of the fighting. Last weekend, a strike damaged a medical facility in the city of Izmail in the Odessa region. Overall, in 2025, Ukraine accounted for nearly 43 percent of all attacks on healthcare facilities worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), attacks on medical personnel and healthcare facilities limit access to essential care, especially in frontline areas where primarily elderly people with chronic illnesses reside.
Violence against children in the DRC
Sexual violence against children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has become a "systemic and entrenched crisis" that is rapidly worsening, according to a new report from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Cases of violence are being recorded in all provinces of the country, and their number has increased sharply since 2022. It is estimated that over 35,000 cases of sexual violence against children were recorded in the DRC in the first nine months of 2025 alone. In 2024, this figure reached almost 45,000, tripling the figure two years earlier.
Malnutrition in North Darfur
Data from the latest health survey of children in the Um Baru district of Sudan's North Darfur state shows that more than half of the children there suffer from acute malnutrition, experts from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported today. Many residents of the district are recently displaced families who fled the escalation of fighting in El Fasher in late October. North Darfur remains the epicenter of the crisis in Sudan: by November of this year, nearly 85,000 children in the state had been hospitalized with severe malnutrition. UNICEF calls on all parties to ensure immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access so that civilians can receive the assistance they need.
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