The war in Sudan, which has given rise to the world’s largest internally displaced persons crisis, is having catastrophic effects on women and girls, UN Women recently reported in a gender alert titled: Sudanese women and girls: Strengths amidst the flames of war.
According to the United Nations agency, the number of people needing services related to gender violence has increased by 100% since fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudanese Forces. of Rapid Support (RSF) in mid-April 2023. In recent months, a new group has joined the fights against the RSF, the Armed Struggle Movements (Join Forces) which defends the interests of Zaghawa groups in North Darfur. Which has caused new waves of internally displaced civilians and refugees.
Some 6.7 million women and girls are affected by this conflict. But it is estimated that the figure is higher. While men and boys are also victims of gender-based violence, the majority of these cases involve women and girls. The reported violence, particularly in the states of Khartoum, Darfur and Kordofan, has exacerbated the risks faced by women and girls: sexual exploitation and abuse have become another weapon of war in this situation.
As always, wars are men’s affairs and women and children are their main victims. Gender inequalities increase during conflicts and therefore women suffer more during them. According to the United Nations, girls are 90% less likely to have access to education than boys in conflict zones. They are also victims of child marriages, slave labor, or may even be recruited as child soldiers.
Housework, social norms, which typically restrict mobility, and other factors can make women generally less able to flee when civilians are attacked, says Amnesty International. If they succeed, many become internally displaced persons or refugees, which can expose them to dangers such as human trafficking and trafficking for sexual exploitation. Additionally, detained or imprisoned women may be held in inadequate facilities and are often at risk of gender-based torture, such as rape and other forms of sexual abuse, at the hands of their jailers or even other inmates. .
As many men go to the front to fight, during conflicts it is women who have to take care of the family. The feeding and basic care of children and the elderly falls much more on them, who become heads of single-parent families.
In Sudan, almost 5.8 million (54%) of Sudanese internally displaced people are women and girls. And, approximately 3 million of them are under 18 years of age who face specific protection risks. They are particularly vulnerable. And many cases of abuse go unreported due to lack of adequate support and fear of stigma and retaliation.
Furthermore, Sudan faces the worst levels of food insecurity ever recorded in the country. 84% of women in Sudan cannot meet the minimum acceptable diet, a 5% increase on last year’s numbers. At least 80% of internally displaced women in Sudan have difficulty accessing safe drinking water due to reasons of safety, quality and distance from sources.
UN Women also warns that 1.2 million pregnant and lactating women in Khartoum, Darfur and Kordofan states will suffer from malnutrition this year and face serious health complications during and after childbirth. And more than 7,000 new mothers and 220,000 severely malnourished children, in the same areas, are at risk of dying in the coming weeks and months if they cannot access maternal health services and nutritional support.
Likewise, the education crisis in Sudan is another of the devastating results of the conflict. More than 2.5 million girls, which represents 74% of school-age minors, do not attend school. A circumstance that increases the risk of being subjected to harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation.
For all this, UN Women demands that urgent measures be taken to guarantee the physical protection of women and girls, as well as safe access to food, drinking water and sexual and reproductive health services.
These actions should be carried out in collaboration with local groups and women-led organizations, in order to strengthen resilience and ensure access to essential humanitarian services for women and girls, but also for men and boys affected by the crisis. You cannot leave these out if you want to serve the population.
However, to implement these measures and alleviate the situation of the Sudanese, money is needed. And the conflict in Sudan is one more of those forgotten wars overlapped by other crises that continue to occupy the front pages of the media, such as the one in Ukraine, the invasion of Gaza by Israel or the growing tension in the East. Next. Hence it is difficult for international agencies to raise funds. Consequently, the current situation of women and girls in Sudan will change little. It is a conflict that is far away and no one seems to care.
Photography: Nigrizia
