Takeaways from AP's reporting on armed groups recruiting children in Colombia
In Cauca, an impoverished department in southwest Colombia, a coalition of Indigenous groups has documented more than 900 cases of Indigenous youth recruited since 2016, including some as young as 9. And the groups say the pace of recruiting has quickened as armed groups have expanded crops like the coca that is used to make cocaine.
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4 hours ago
- CNN
Photos this week: August 7-14, 2025
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CNN
4 hours ago
- CNN
Photos this week: August 7-14, 2025
Maria Claudia Tarazona, kisses her son Alejandro during a funeral service for her husband, Sen. Miguel Uribe, in Bogata, Colombia, on Wednesday, August 13. Uribe, a Colombian senator and presidential hopeful was hospitalized after being shot at a campaign event in June. Fernando Vergara/AP President Donald Trump calls on a reporter during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on Monday, August 11. During the briefing, Trump announced that he is placing the DC Metropolitan Police Department under federal control and deploying the National Guard to the city, saying the move is aimed at restoring order in the nation's capital. Eric Lee/TheMourners carry the bodies of Al Jazeera journalists killed by an Israeli military strike, including correspondent Anas Al-Sharif, during a funeral procession in Gaza City on Monday, August 11. The IDF said it targeted Al Sharif, a prominent reporter who extensively covered the war from inside Gaza, after previously accusing him of leading a Hamas cell, an allegation both Al-Sharif and Al Jazeera vehemently denied. The UN condemned the strike calling it 'grave breach of international humanitarian law.' Saher Alghorra/The New York Times/Redux A member of the DC National Guard joins his unit near the Washington Monument in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, August 12. President Donald Trump announced Monday that he was placing the Washington, DC, police department 'under direct federal control' and deploying National Guard troops to the nation's capital, saying the move is aimed at restoring order in the enforcement officers are seen near the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, during an active shooting on Friday, August 8. A gunman opened fire on Friday afternoon, shooting nearly 500 rounds at the CDC complex using guns he stole from his father's safe. One first responder, DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose, was killed.A two-week-old jaguarundi squeals at a wildlife veterinary hospital in Panama City, Panama, on Wednesday, August 13. Jaguarundis, also known as otter cats, are wild cats native to the Americas. Enea Lebrun/Reuters Miami outfielder Kyle Stowers, left, objects to a call made by umpire Jen Pawol during a Major League Baseball game in Atlanta on Sunday, August 10. The day before, Pawol made history by becoming the first woman to umpire a Major League Baseball regular season game. Matthew Grimes Jr./August's full moon, also called the sturgeon moon, rises behind the Empire State Building and Hudson Yards skyscrapers in New York as seen from across the Hudson River in Weehawken, New Jersey, on Saturday, August 9. Nazli Zeynep Karabulut/Anadolu/Getty Images Jinny Lu, a 5-year-old pug, prepares to compete in the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma County Fair in Santa Rosa, California, on Friday, August 8. Jinny went on to win second place and a spirit award. Noah Berger/AP Einav Zangauker, center, the mother of Israeli hostage Matan Zangauker, holds a sign during a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Saturday, August 9, calling for a deal to free hostages held in Gaza. Amit Elkayam/The New York Times/Redux Taylor Swift appears on the 'New Heights' podcast with her boyfriend Travis Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce on Wednesday, August 13. During the much-anticipated episode, Swift announced that her next album, 'The Life of a Showgirl,' will be out on October 3. The nearly two-hour-long pre-recorded podcast brought in more than 1 million viewers. Will Lanzoni/CNN Rescued migrants look at a sunset aboard a migrant search-and-rescue ship operated by German NGO Sea-Watch as the ship makes its way toward Salerno, Italy, on Tuesday, August 12. Louisa Gouliamaki/Reuters
Associated Press
8 hours ago
- Associated Press
Sexual violence in conflicts worldwide increased by 25% last year, UN says
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Sexual violence in conflicts worldwide increased by 25% last year, with the highest number of cases in the Central African Republic, Congo, Haiti, Somalia and South Sudan, according to a U.N. report released Thursday. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' annual report said more than 4,600 people survived sexual violence in 2024, with armed groups carrying out the majority of the abuse but some by government forces. He stressed that the U.N.-verified figures don't reflect the global scale and prevalence of these crimes. The report's blacklist names 63 government and non-government parties in a dozen countries suspected of committing or being responsible for rape and other forms of sexual violence in conflict, including Hamas militants, whose attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, sparked the war in Gaza. Over 70% of those listed have appeared on the report's blacklist annex for five years or more without creating steps to prevent the violence, the U.N. chief said. U.N. warns Israel and Russia about allegations For the first time, the report includes two parties that have been notified the U.N. has 'credible information' that could put them on next year's blacklist if they don't take preventive actions: Israel's military and security forces over allegations of sexual abuse of Palestinians primarily in prisons and detention, and Russian forces and affiliated armed groups against Ukrainian prisoners of war. Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon, who circulated a letter Tuesday from Guterres about the country's forces being put on notice, said the allegations 'are steeped in biased publications.' 'The U.N. must focus on the shocking war crimes and sexual violence of Hamas and the release of all hostages,' he said. Russia's U.N. mission said it had no comment on the secretary-general's warning. The 34-page report said 'conflict-related sexual violence' refers to rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, forced sterilization, forced marriage and other forms of sexual violence. The majority of victims are women and girls. 'In 2024, proliferating and escalating conflicts were marked by widespread conflict-related sexual violence, amid record levels of displacement and increased militarization,' Guterres said. 'Sexual violence continued to be used as a tactic of war, torture, terrorism and political repression, while multiple and overlapping political, security and humanitarian crises deepened.' The toll of sexual violence in conflict The U.N. says women and girls were attacked in their homes, on roads and while trying to earn a living, with victims ranging in age from 1 to 75. Reports of summary executions of victims after rape persisted in Congo and Myanmar, it said. In an increasing number of places, the report said armed groups 'used sexual violence as a tactic to gain and consolidate control over territory and lucrative natural resources.' Women and girls perceived to be associated with rival armed groups were targeted with sexual violence in the Central African Republic, Congo and Haiti, it said. In detention facilities, the report said sexual violence was perpetrated 'including as a form of torture,' reportedly in Israel and the Palestinian territories, Libya, Myanmar, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen. 'Most of the reported incidents against men and boys occurred in detention, consistent with previous years, and included rape, threats of rape and the electrocution and beating of genitals,' the report said. U.N. report details where abuse is occurring The U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic documented cases of rape, gang rape, forced marriage and sexual slavery affecting 215 women, 191 girls and seven men. In mineral-rich eastern Congo, the peacekeeping mission documented nearly 800 cases last year including including rape, gang rape, sexual slavery and forced marriage, 'often accompanied by extreme physical violence,' the report said. The number of cases involving the M23 rebel group, now controlling the main city Goma, rose from 43 in 2022 to 152 in 2024, it said. In Sudan, where civil war is raging, the report said groups providing services to victims of sexual violence recorded 221 rape cases against 147 girls and 74 boys, 'with 16% of survivors under five years of age, including four one-year-olds.' ___
