UN Women Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Anna Mutavati, told reporters in Geneva that women in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, have endured starvation, displacement, sexual violence and bombardment.
“Pregnant women have given birth in the streets as the last remaining maternity hospitals were looted and destroyed,” she said.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia captured El Fasher in late October after more than 500 days of siege, amid reports of atrocities including summary executions and systematic rape. Fighting between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces erupted in April 2023 following the collapse of Sudan’s transition to civilian rule.
Mutavati said that thousands of women and girls have fled to the surrounding areas with little to no humanitarian support. “Every step that they’ve taken to fetch water, to collect firewood or to stand in a food line has carried a high risk of sexual violence,” she said.
She warned that “women’s bodies have just become a crime scene in Sudan”, adding that basic dignity has collapsed as the cost of essential goods such as sanitary towels has skyrocketed.
UN reports indicate that famine conditions have taken hold in parts of North and South Kordofan, with women and girls often skipping meals or scavenging for wild plants to survive.
Mutavati urged the international community to act, saying: “Every day that the world delays to act on Sudan, another woman gives birth under fire, buries her child in hunger, or disappears without justice.”
–UN/ChannelAfrica–
