Over 79 million girls in Africa are sexually abused

One in five girls in conflict-affected sub-Saharan countries had experienced sexual assault or rape before the age of 18.

In total, 79 million girls were sexually abused in sub-Saharan Africa between 2010 and 2022.

This is according to UNICEF’s first global estimate of sexual violence against children.

According to UNICEF estimates, around 370 million – or one in eight – girls and young women worldwide are affected by sexual violence.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, sub-Saharan Africa has the highest number of victims, followed by 75 million in East and Southeast Asia, 73 million in Central and South Asia, 68 million in Europe and North America, and 45 million in Latin America and the Caribbean , 29 million in North Africa and Western Asia and 6 million in Oceania.

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

Girls who have suffered the trauma of sexual abuse are often unable to study in school, she added.

The report says the number rises to 650 million, or a fifth, when “non-contact” forms of sexual violence such as online or verbal violence are taken into account.

While girls and women were most affected, 240 to 310 million boys and men, or about one in eleven, experienced rape or sexual assault in their childhood.

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

“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,” Russell said.

However, the data showed that sexual violence against children is widespread and extends across geographical, cultural and economic boundaries.

Two Nigerians were sentenced to death in Ghana for the kidnapping of four girls