Attacks on and occupation of health facilities also prevent survivors from seeking and accessing emergency health care. Reporting violations and getting support is also made difficult, if not impossible, by the lack of electricity and connectivity, as well as lack of humanitarian access due to the volatile security situation. Many survivors find it challenging to report sexual violence due to shame, stigma and fear of reprisal. Given the significant underreporting of gender-based violence, the real number of cases is undoubtedly far higher. It has documented at least 42 alleged cases in the capital, Khartoum, and 46 in the Darfur region. The Unit for Combatting Violence against Women under Sudan’s Ministry of Social Development also continues to receive reports of conflict-related sexual violence.
In one case, as many as 20 women were reportedly raped in the same attack. Since this conflict began, the UN Human Rights Office in Sudan has received credible reports of 21 incidents of conflict-related sexual violence against at least 57 women and girls. This number has since climbed to an estimated 4.2 million people.
The heads of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN Human Rights Office, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), UN Women and the World Health Organization (WHO) also stressed the need to swiftly scale up gender-based violence prevention and response services in Sudan as well as in neighbouring countries, where those fleeing violence have sought safety as refugees, to meet the soaring needs.Įven before fighting broke out on 15 April, more than 3 million women and girls in Sudan were at risk of gender-based violence, including intimate-partner violence, according to UN estimates. They stressed that all parties must respect their obligations under international humanitarian law and human rights law to protect civilians, including women and girls, including allowing safe passage for survivors to access health care and for health workers to reach health facilities. They called for an immediate end to gender-based violence, including sexual violence as a tactic of war to terrorize people for prompt, thorough, impartial and independent investigations into all alleged gross violations and abuses of human rights and serious violations of international humanitarian law and for perpetrators to be held accountable.
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