War is growing deadlier for women and girls, who accounted for one in four of the more than 37,000 civilians killed in armed conflict last year — double their share in 2021 — according to the UN Secretary-General's annual report on Women, Peace and Security, released on Monday, UN News reported.

Source: UN News

At least 25 women and girls are killed every day in conflict settings, the report found. Some 750 million women and girls now live within 50 kilometres of an active conflict — 40 million more than in 2024 and more than at any time since 1990, UN Women officials told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York, according to UNifeed.

Source: UNifeed / UN Media

"War is getting deadlier for women and girls, and the world is allowing it to happen," UN Women Deputy Executive Director Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda said while presenting the report. "For them, war is not something they can scroll past. War is outside their door."

37,000+civilians killed in armed conflict last year
1 in 4of those killed was a woman or girl
25women and girls killed every day in conflict settings
750 millionwomen and girls living within 50 km of an active conflict

Violence beyond the battlefield

In 2025, the UN verified 9,788 cases of conflict-related sexual violence — more than twice as many as the year before and almost four times as many as in 2022 — and reported cases in Haiti rose by 163 per cent, APP reported, citing the same report. A woman giving birth in a conflict-affected country is five times more likely to die from maternal causes than a woman in a stable country, Ms Gumbonzvanda said.

Source: APP via Tez Khabar

In Gaza, the destruction of hospitals and maternity facilities and the collapse of access to essential supplies have contributed to a 41 per cent decrease in live births and a 300 per cent increase in miscarriages, the report said. Around 170 million women and girls live in both conflict zones and extreme poverty, surviving on less than $3 a day.

Shut out of peace, while military spending hits a record

Yet women made up just five per cent of negotiators across 57 peace processes in 2025, and not one of 13 ceasefire agreements explicitly prohibited conflict-related sexual violence, the report found. Global military spending hit a record $2.9 trillion last year, while 40 per cent of women's organisations in crisis-affected settings expect to close temporarily or permanently within the next year due to severe funding shortfalls.

Yaani: $2.9 trillion is about Rs 273 lakh crore — a record sum spent on militaries in one year, at a time when the women's organisations saving lives in war zones say they are running out of money.

"More women and girls are trapped in wars than at any point in decades. Yet military spending keeps rising and development assistance keeps falling," UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous said. UN Women called for protection of women and girls, their meaningful participation in peace talks, sustained investment in women-led peacebuilding and an end to impunity.