Sudanese Women Are Facing Difficult Conditions After Nearly a Year of Conflict

The suffering of women in Sudan- File Photo
The suffering of women in Sudan- File Photo
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Sudanese Women Are Facing Difficult Conditions After Nearly a Year of Conflict

The suffering of women in Sudan- File Photo
The suffering of women in Sudan- File Photo

As the world marks International Women's Day, Sudanese women continue to struggle with extremely difficult humanitarian conditions. Women have been subjected to various kinds of gross human rights violations since the war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces broke out last year.

For millions of Sudanese women, the past year has been a living hell of sexual assault, rape, and forced displacement. Many have walked long distances on foot as they made their way to camps in neighboring countries; others waited at border crossings for months before obtaining visas.

Rehab Al-Mubarak, a member of Sudan’s Emergency Lawyers, explains the dire situation women are living under in Sudan.

"Women have paid a high price for this war. They have been subjected to forced labor. Many have been gravely harmed, and many are being gravely harmed. Some have been forced to work in domestic labor, and have been subjected to horrific forms of sexual violence and brutally raped. They have few options, and they are struggling to survive and escape from the regions in which battles are raging."

Umm Muhammad has been working for a civic organization since fighting broke out in Khartoum and engulfed her neighborhood. She says: "The war forced us to leave our homes, our lives, our memories, and all of our possessions. We went through hell when we were forced out of the capital. We witnessed the destruction of our city; we saw its markets burn. We will never forget the pain of seeing the corpses left along the road."

She also described the trauma that her daughter experienced after being shot at while they had been trying to escape the capital. “We faced real terror, as whenever we passed a military checkpoint, we would be shot at continuously to force the driver to stop moving."

Heba Khatmi, a teacher who survived the war in Khartoum, also told her story. "I fled Khartoum and sought refuge in my father's hometown of Abri, only to fall totally mute for a time. My mind refused to recall what had happened in Khartoum. Settling in the town where I found refuge was not easy. I began to think about leaving Sudan after losing hope that the war would end, as well as facing financial constraints after losing my job."

Iman Fadel, a member of the Sudanese Journalists’ Union, shared the painful stories of women journalists. "Most of them have lost their source of income after most newspapers stopped operating, and they sought refuge in camps, living under extremely difficult humanitarian conditions. Their pain was exacerbated by being targeted, and we must not forget what happened to Samaher Abdel Shafei, the journalist who was assassinated in Darfur, and Halima Idris, the journalist who was killed while covering battle at Omdurman Hospital."

The United Nations published reports last week documenting further violations against women in Darfur, including murder, forced displacement, and rape. Some of the victims are children. Condemnations of the violence compare the events unfolding today to the violence that devastated the region around twenty years ago. Over 200,000 people were killed at the time. One particularly notorious crime against humanity was the mass rape perpetrated in the village of Tabit.

Volunteers and human rights organizations accuse both belligerents in Sudan of detaining hundreds of women on trumped-up espionage charges, or merely because of their ethnic background.

The Darfur Lawyers Association announced last February that authorities in the city of Atbara (530 kilometers from Khartoum) had arrested Inaam Ahmed Khairy and Salma Hassan because they are part of the Messiria tribe and belonging an ethnic group associated with the Rapid Support Forces.

Research on education in Sudan conducted since the war erupted demonstrates the devastating impact it has had on the country’s 11 million students, half of whom are girls. Many could be forced into child marriage or flee their homes.



'Deadly Blockade' Leaves Gaza Aid Work on Verge of Collapse: UN, Red Cross

A man stands on the rubble of a building hit in an Israeli strike in the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip - AFP
A man stands on the rubble of a building hit in an Israeli strike in the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip - AFP
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'Deadly Blockade' Leaves Gaza Aid Work on Verge of Collapse: UN, Red Cross

A man stands on the rubble of a building hit in an Israeli strike in the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip - AFP
A man stands on the rubble of a building hit in an Israeli strike in the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip - AFP

Two months into Israel's full blockade on aid into Gaza, humanitarians described Friday horrific scenes of starving, bloodied children and people fighting over water, with aid operations on the "verge of total collapse".

The United Nations and the Red Cross sounded the alarm at the dire situation in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, demanding international action.

"The humanitarian response in Gaza is on the verge of total collapse," the International Committee of the Red Cross warned in a statement.

"Without immediate action, Gaza will descend further into chaos that humanitarian efforts will not be able to mitigate."

Israel strictly controls all inflows of international aid vital for the 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

It halted aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2, days before the collapse of a ceasefire that had significantly reduced hostilities after 15 months of war.

Since the start of the blockade, the United Nations has repeatedly warned of the humanitarian catastrophe on the ground, with famine again looming.

The UN's World Food Program (WFP) said a week ago that it had sent out its "last remaining food stocks" to kitchens.

- 'The blockade is deadly' -

"Food stocks have now mainly run out," Olga Cherevko, a spokeswoman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, told reporters in Geneva Friday via video link from Gaza City.

"Community kitchens have begun to shut down (and) more people are going hungry," she said, pointing to reports of children and other very vulnerable people who have died from malnutrition and ... from the lack of food".

"The blockade is deadly."

Water access was also "becoming impossible", she warned.

"In fact, as I speak to you, just downstairs from this building people are fighting for water. There's a water truck that has just arrived, and people are killing each other over water," she said.

The situation is so bad, she said that a friend had described to her a few days ago seeing "people burning ... because of the explosions and there was no water to save them".

At the same time, Cherevko lamented that "hospitals report running out of blood units as mass casualties continue to arrive".

"Gaza lies in ruins, Rubble fills the streets... Many nights, blood-curdling screams of the injured pierce the skies following the deafening sound of another explosion."

- 'Abomination' -

She also decried the mass displacement, with nearly the entire Gaza population being forced to shift multiple times prior to the brief ceasefire.

Since the resumption of hostilities, she said "over 420,000 people have been once again forced to flee, many with only the clothes on their backs, shot at along the way, arriving in overcrowded shelters, as tents and other facilities where people search safety, are being bombed".

Pascal Hundt, the ICRC's deputy head of operations, also cautioned that "civilians in Gaza are facing an overwhelming daily struggle to survive the dangers of hostilities, cope with relentless displacement, and endure the consequences of being deprived of urgent humanitarian assistance".

The World Health Organization's emergencies director Mike Ryan said the situation was an "abomination".

"We are breaking the bodies and the minds of the children of Gaza. We are starving the children of Gaza," he told reporters on Thursday.

Cherevko slammed decision makers who "have watched in silence the endless scenes of bloodied children, of severed limbs, of grieving parents move swiftly across their screens, month, after month, after month".

"How much more blood must be spilled before enough become enough?"