For a printable version of Watchlist’s April 2026 Children and Armed Conflict Monthly Update, click here.

In his 2025 annual report (S/2025/247) on children and armed conflict (CAAC), the Secretary-General (SG) listed the Viv Ansanm coalition for the recruitment and use and the killing and maiming of children, rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, and attacks on schools and hospitals. The SG’s latest report on Haiti, documented child casualties, including 12 girls and 44 boys among victims of intentional homicide recorded between 1 September and 30 November 2025. Sexual violence remained widespread, with 449 incidents documented involving 466 victims, including 35 girls and 1 boy. Violence further disrupted access to education, with more than 1,600 schools closed and 25 occupied by armed groups, affecting 243,000 students and 7,500 teachers. In addition, UNICEF recently reported that child recruitment by armed groups had increased by an estimated 200 per cent in 2025. OCHCR verified the killing of 54 children and maiming of 40 between 1 March 2025 and 15 January 2026. In April, the SG will report on the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) per SCR 2814 (2026). The Security Council should:

• Call on all parties to take immediate and concrete steps to end and prevent rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, ensure survivors have access to comprehensive, gender-sensitive, and age-appropriate response systems and services, and strengthen preventive measures;
• Urge all armed gangs to immediately release all children under 18 from their ranks and end and prevent all child recruitment and use, the killing and maiming of children, their abductions; reiterate that children associated with armed forces and gangs should be treated primarily as victims, and their reintegration should be prioritized; encourage the Government of Haiti to fully and consistently implement its 2024 handover protocol on the transfer and reintegration of children allegedly associated with armed gangs and the release of detained children to civilian actors, including through sufficient child protection capacities;
• Call on the Viv Ansanm coalition to adopt action plans with the United Nations to end and prevent grave violations against children;
• Call on Member States participating in the GSF to establish an oversight mechanism to prevent human rights violations or abuses, in particular sexual exploitation and abuse, to deploy dedicated child and Women’s Protection Advisers;
• Ensure that the GSF prioritizes and mainstreams the protection of children throughout its mandate in all the planning and conduct of its operations, including through capacity-building; supports the release and recovery of children from armed gangs and their immediate handover to civilian child protection actors, and provides protection to and facilitates access for child protection actors to affected children;
• Urge donors to swiftly mobilize additional flexible funds to support the humanitarian response in Haiti, including resources for child protection and reintegration programs.

PANAMA AND THE UNITED STATES ARE THE SECURITY COUNCIL PENHOLDERS ON HAITI. 

In his 2025 annual report, the SG continued to list the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) for recruitment and use, killing and maiming, rape and other forms of sexual violence, and abduction as well as the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-Army in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO) for recruitment and use, killing and maiming, and abduction. UNICEF reported that violence in Abiemnhom, Ruweng Administrative Area, killed three children and injured 13 others amid intensifying hostilities and an alarming increase in grave violations against children. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (SRSG), expressed concern over escalating conflict and deteriorating security conditions, warning that aerial bombardments, military operations in populated areas, and attacks on humanitarian and health facilities have sharply increased grave violations against children. In March, the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS) mandate is up for renewal. The Security Council should:

• Renew UNMISS’ child protection mandate and ensure allocation of sufficient resources to strengthen capacities to deliver on this mandate, including for monitoring and engagement with parties to end and prevent grave violations;
• Urge the Government and parties that have endorsed the 2020 Comprehensive Action Plan to fully and swiftly implement their commitments, and urge all parties to release and hand over to child protection actors all children from their ranks, their reintegration should be prioritized in line with international juvenile justice standards, and detention should only be used as a last resort and for the shortest appropriate time;
• Urge the Government to end impunity for grave violations against childrenthrough timely and impartial investigation and, where appropriate, prosecution; urge allocation of appropriate resources to ensure survivors of grave violations have access to justice, including for rape and other forms of sexual violence; and designate a focal point on CAAC in the Ministry of Justice;
• Call on all parties to allow and facilitate the safe, timely, and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance to affected populations, especially children;
• Demand that all parties immediately cease attacks or threats against schools, hospitals, and related protected persons, in line with SCR 2601 (2021).

THE UNITED STATES IS THE SECURITY COUNCIL PENHOLDER ON SOUTH SUDAN.

In the SG’s 2025 annual report on CAAC, the Security Belt Forces have been delisted for the violation of recruitment and use of children for their commitment to the 2014 action plan and the Houthis have been delisted for the violation of attacks on schools and hospitals. These delistings are conditional upon the continued implementation of their respective action plans and road maps and the continued decrease in such violations. The Houthis remain listed for killing and maiming and recruitment and use of children. Save the Children reported that child casualties in Yemen increased by 70 per cent in 2025, with at least 103 children killed and 246 injured, compared with 44 killed and 161 injured in 2024. The increase was largely driven by airstrikes, which killed or injured at least 155 children. In September 2025, at least 103 children were among 427 civilian casualties from Israeli airstrikes, including one incident on 25 September in which airstrikes near a school killed or injured 216 people, including 67 children. The Security Council should:

• Urge all parties to coordinate with the UN to fund and promote mine clearance and age-appropriate explosive ordnance risk education, conflict preparedness, and protection for affected communities;
• Call on all parties to the conflict to allow the unimpeded access of United Nations personnel to children held in detention facilities, including recruitment centers and military barracks, as part of efforts to verify, release and reintegrate them into their families;
• Urge all parties to take immediate steps to end and prevent rape and other forms of sexual violence against children and ensure that survivors have access to timely, comprehensive, gender-sensitive, and age-appropriate response and protection;
• Call on Yemen Armed Forces and affiliated armed forces and groups, the Amaliqah Brigades and all groups affiliated with the Presidential Leadership Council to fully and swiftly implement all relevant activities under the Government’s 2014 action plan and 2018 roadmap, including further capacity-building for officers and a complaints mechanisms;
• Call on the Houthi’s to fully and swiftly implement the 2022 action plan and handover protocol, in close collaboration with the UN, notably to continue conducting age assessments in recruitment centers and training of officers on child protection and granting unimpeded access for the UN to all places of detention of children;
• Call for the immediate and unconditional release of all detained personnel from UN, non-governmental and civil society organizations as well as from diplomatic missions, and demand that all parties fully comply with obligations under IHL and IHRL, including allowing and facilitating the immediate, safe, and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid to children and other civilians in need.

THE UNITED KINGDOM IS THE SECURITY COUNCIL PENHOLDER ON YEMEN.

The Working Group has received the following reports of the SG on children and armed conflict and conclusions remain pending: Mali (S/2024/883), Burkina Faso (S/2025/101), Myanmar (S/2025/81), Yemen (S/2025/113), South Sudan (S/2025/317), Syria (S/2025/535), and Somalia (S/2025/735) . For targeted recommendations, see Watchlist’s Monthly CAAC updates from March 2025, May 2025, June 2025, September 2025, December 2025, and February 2026 respectively.