UN says Darfur women report rape and child loss amid turmoil in Sudan
The U.N. office for women said Tuesday that women escaping al-Fashir city in Sudan describe being killed, raped repeatedly, and having their children vanished after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took control of the city.
The RSF’s hold on the Darfur region in its two-and-a-half-year conflict with the Sudanese army was solidified on October 26 with the fall of Al-Fashir. Those escaping the city have reported drone attacks and street shootings of civilians.
“Horrors that no one should ever endure,” U.N. Women Regional Director for East and Southern Africa Anna Mutavati told reporters in Geneva via video link from Nairobi, referring to the deaths, rapes, and disappearances of their children that women fleeing al-Fashir have observed.
She said there was pervasive sexual violence.
“There is mounting evidence that rape is being deliberately and systematically used as a weapon of war,” said she.
In Sudan, the bodies of women are turned into crime scenes. She continued, “There are no longer any safe places for women to congregate, seek safety, or even obtain the most basic psychosocial care.
UN Women warned that 11 million women and girls in famine-stricken Darfur are experiencing severe food insecurity and may even be sexually assaulted while looking for food.
According to field reports from Darfur, women gather berries and wild foliage to boil into soup.
“While doing this, they face additional risks of violence, including abduction and sexual and gender based violence,” added Mutavati.
In al-Fashir and Kadugli, another besieged city in the south of Sudan, a global food monitor declared famine last month.
Fearing that rape, racially driven violence, and summary killings are still occurring in the town, the U.N. Human Rights Chief expressed his concerns on Friday.
Approximately 82,000 people have left al-Fashir and its environs since October 26, according to the United Nations, but estimates of the city’s population at the conclusion of the 18-month siege suggest that up to 200,000 people may still be trapped inside.
