As Africa marks World AIDS Day 2025, UNAIDS is warning that the continent’s progress against HIV is under growing threat. Funding cuts, reduced community programmes, and rising human rights restrictions are putting millions at risk especially women and young people in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS, says the rollback in rights and services is pushing vulnerable groups further into danger.

“There is a determined, organized, and well-funded campaign against human rights… This campaign is pushing people further away from lifesaving HIV services,” she cautions.

Across Africa, more than 60% of women-led HIV organisations have faced similar closures. PrEP usage critical for HIV prevention, has declined sharply, with a 31% drop in Uganda and 64% in Burundi.

Human rights setbacks are compounding the problem, with new criminalisation laws and weakened protections for women and girls increasing vulnerability to HIV. In Sub-Saharan Africa, women experiencing intimate partner violence are 3.2 times more likely to acquire the virus.

Despite this, pockets of progress offer hope. Several governments have increased domestic health funding, Rwanda has expanded adolescent access to reproductive health services, and Africa has received its first doses of Lenacapavir, the twice-yearly HIV prevention injection.

Global support remains steady, with the Global Fund securing over US$11 billion in pledges.

The message from UNAIDS is clear: Africa can still end AIDS, but only if governments, communities and partners protect human rights, expand prevention access, and keep community programmes alive.

#WorldAIDSDay is a moment to remember those we have lost, and to renew our commitment to the HIV response and to #endAIDS.

Nearly a quarter of the world’s 40+ million people living with HIV are not on treatment. Yet, in the hardest of circumstances, I have seen this year,… pic.twitter.com/iV0EiM9qM1

— Winnie Byanyima (@Winnie_Byanyima) December 1, 2025