Geneva (EFE).- UN Women said Tuesday that there is mounting evidence that rape is being used “systematically as a weapon of war” in Sudan, warning that women have “no safe spaces left” to seek protection.
“There is mounting evidence that rape is being used deliberately and systematically as a weapon of war. Women’s bodies have become crime scenes,” said Anna Mutavati, UN Women’s regional director for East and Southern Africa, during a video conference from Nairobi.
“Sexual violence, forced displacement, and the collapse of essential services have transformed Sudan into the world’s most extreme crisis for women and girls. Simply put, the war in Sudan is a war on women.”
Mutavati said that even basic daily activities, such as fetching water, collecting firewood, or waiting in line for food, now carry “the risk of sexual violence.”
“There are no safe spaces left, nowhere for women and girls to gather, seek protection, or access even the most basic psychosocial care,” she said.
In remote and besieged areas of Darfur and Kordofan, women face additional dangers, including abduction and sexual or gender-based violence.
“As fighting engulfed El Fasher and severe food insecurity spread across Darfur, women and girls experienced extreme hunger, displacement, death, and sexual and gender-based violence,” she said.
UN Women’s latest gender alert estimates that nearly 11 million women and girls in Sudan are now “acutely food insecure.”
Rising child malnutrition is also forcing mothers to starve themselves and reducing breastfeeding, while adolescent girls are often left with the smallest food portions.
In El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, recently seized by paramilitary forces after a prolonged siege, she said, some women have given birth in the streets after the last remaining maternity hospital was “looted and destroyed.”
Across Darfur, local clinics report that 28% of pregnancies are high-risk and 45% end in miscarriage.
Access to menstrual hygiene products has also become nearly impossible, with a pack of sanitary pads now costing about 27 dollars in a country where a family of six survives on roughly 150 dollars a month.
Mutavati called for the full implementation of a ceasefire, the opening of humanitarian corridors, and greater support for women-led food kitchens, which she described as a “lifeline” for thousands of families in Sudan. EFE
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