According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), war in Sudan exposes more than 12 million people to “wide range” sexual violence used to “terrorize” the entire population.
As the war approaches the two-year mark, UNICEF executive director Katherine Russell told a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday that there was an increasing risk of women and girls, as well as the risks of men and boys, an 80% increase from last year.
Referring to data analyzed by UNICEF, Russell said there were 221 cases of rape reported in 2024 in nine states, with 16 cases reported, including children under the age of 16 involving babies under the age of 1.
“The data only gives us a glimpse of how we know that it’s a much bigger, more devastating crisis,” Russell said. “Survivors and their families are often reluctant to move forward or unable to move forward due to the challenges due to access to services, fear of social stigma, or risk of retaliation.”
Much of the conference focused on the suffering of 16 million children in need of humanitarian assistance this year as a result of the ongoing war between the Paramilitary Quick Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Army (SAF).
The battle broke out in April 2023, killing tens of thousands of people and uprooting more than 12 million people, creating the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis.
Russell cited more than 900 “serious violations” against children reported between June and December 2024, killing or wounding victims, primarily in the provinces of Khartoum, Al-Jazirah and Darfur.
A meeting took place as SAF accused the RSF of targeting civilians in Elfasher, the capital of besieged North Darfur, killing five children under the age of six and injuring four women on Wednesday.
The fight at Elfasher has intensified in recent months as the RSF attempts to consolidate the retention of Darfur after the Army victory in central Sudan. The city is one of the only capitals of the five provinces of the vast Darfur region.
“Hollow”
Christopher Lockyear, the executive director of the Borderless Doctor (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF), not only failed to protect citizens, but also denounced the fight side of “actively exacerbating suffering.”
“The war in Sudan is a war with the people, and it’s a reality that will become more obvious by that day,” Rocchia said.
Lockyear also criticized the UN Security Council for repeatedly calling for a ceasefire as “hollow.”
“The failure of this council to translate its own demands into actions feels like a renunciation of violence and deprivation,” he said.
“While the statement is being made in this room, civilians remain invisible, unprotected, bombed, surrounded, raped, evacuated, deprived of food, medical care and dignity,” he added.
Ongoing violence has forced MSF to suspend all activities at the starving Zamzam refugee camp near El-Fasher last month.
Sudan’s UN ambassador, Al Harris Idris Al Harris Mohamed, told the Security Council that the Sudanian government has a national program for the protection of civilians, claiming that Lockyear had not raised the issue with him at previous private meetings.
In a report from the United Nations in New York, Gabriel Elizondo of Al Jazeera said that security council diplomats have frequently returned to the Jeddah Declaration.
“The Jeddah declaration has been repeated, especially by diplomats at the Security Council, as many times as necessary to return again and again,” he said. “Lockyear said the international community needs to move beyond that and Sudan needs a new compact.”
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