UN agencies condemn increase in sexual violence in Sudan

Senior UN officials voiced shock and condemnation at increasing reports of gender-based violence in war-torn Sudan, including conflict-related sexual violence against internally displaced and refugee women and girls since fighting erupted more than 11 weeks ago, Anadolu news agency reported.

The heads of UN agencies, including the Human Rights Office; Refugee Agency; Children’s Fund, UNICEF; Population Fund; UN Women and the World Health Organisation demanded an immediate end to sexual violence as a tactic of war to terrorise people.

“It is unconscionable that Sudan’s women and children – whose lives have been upended by this senseless conflict – are being further traumatised in this way,” said UN aid chief Martin Griffiths. ‘” What we are witnessing in Sudan is not just a humanitarian crisis; it is a crisis of humanity.”

Human rights chief Volker Turk said women and girls are left with little or no medical and psychosocial support in the aftermath of such cruelty and brutality.

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“There must be zero tolerance for sexual violence,” he said.

They urged prompt, thorough, impartial and independent investigations into all alleged violations and abuses of human rights and serious violations of international humanitarian law and called for perpetrators to be held accountable.

More than three million women and girls in Sudan were at risk of gender-based violence before fighting broke out on 15 April, according to UN estimates. That number has since risen to an estimated 4.2 million.

In one case, as many as 20 women were reportedly raped in the same attack, according to the UN Human Rights Office in Sudan.