Armed forces in Sudan’s civil war are perpetrating systematic sexual violence against young children, with one-year-olds the youngest survivors of rape, according to a new report from UNICEF, the United Nations’ (UN) children’s agency.

A report issued by UNICEF investigators described horrific abuses, affecting children as young as 1 year old, in the civil war in Sudan.

"Children as young as one being raped by armed men should shock anyone to their core and compel immediate action," UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement sent to journalists.

This is a story of unimaginable trauma, courage and bravery. Young children and women are refusing to be silenced. Instead, they’re raising their voices.

Report says rape is ‘being used as a tactic of war’ in violation of international law and and laws protecting children.

As conflict rages across Sudan, armed men are raping and sexually assaulting children, including some infants as young as one, according to the UN children’s agency (UNICEF).

UNICEF said 221 children, including boys, were raped by armed men, according to records compiled by gender-based violence service providers in the North African nation.

The first detailed account of the impact of rape on children by the UN agency documented over 200 rape cases against children in 2024

“Armed men are raping and sexually assaulting children, including infants as young as one, amid the nationwide conflict rippling across Sudan,” the UN agency for children, UNICEF, says today, in a new report documenting harrowing numbers of Sudanese children subjected to rape and sexual assault since the beginning of last year.

In a shocking report, the UN children's agency has revealed that children as young as one year old have been victims of rape across nine states in Sudan.

The sanctions were imposed after fresh reports of horrific abuses in the African country, notably a UN report that documented the rape of hundreds of children by armed men