Rabat – The devastating situation in Sudan continues to draw attention and make international headlines, yet it amounts to little effort to tackle the situation.
Amid a war crisis, rights organizations are now raising alarm over what reports describe as an endemic sexual and gender-based violence.
The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) released disturbing data on Thursday, documenting at least 1,294 cases of sexual and gender-based violence across Sudan.
The data showed that the findings cover at least 14 states since the brutal war began in the country in 2023.
SIHA said the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, known as RSF, are responsible for 87% of the reported cases.
Such crimes are “widespread, repeated, intentional and often targeted,” Al Jazeera quoted the network as saying.
Around 220 cases involved children as young as four years old, the news outlet said, adding that rape accounted for over than three-quarters of the cases.
Women and girls from different tribes, including Darfur, were “directly targeted,” the network said.
In November, the UN said rape is “likely used as a weapon of war.”
The gender equality agency documented starvation, displacement, rape, and bombardment that women endure in Sudan.
“Pregnant women have given birth in the streets as the last remaining maternity hospitals were looted and destroyed,” Anna Mutavati, UN Women Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, told reporters.
The civil war in Sudan erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary RSF. The fighting began when a transition to civilian rule broke down following the overthrow of longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir four years earlier.
In addition to rape and other crimes, women also skip their meals to allow their children to eat.
“In besieged, remote areas like Darfur or Kordofan, women and girls are often the ones that are scavenging for survival,” Mutavati said.