UN Official: Displaced Women in Sudan Urgently Need ``Immediate Protection``
Agencies – Moatinoon
A UN official returning from a visit to Sudan on Friday described the suffering of women and girls displaced by war, condemning the stripping of "all their basic necessities" and highlighting their severe shortages of food, water, and safety.
Leila Baker, the Regional Director for the Arab States at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said: "We all know war is horrific, but this is one of the most horrific situations I have witnessed in my professional career."
She added: "Imagine thousands of women crowded in a shelter with no clean water, no hygiene facilities, not enough food for their next meal, and no medical care for these displaced women."
The war in Sudan, which has been raging for over 16 months between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, has claimed tens of thousands of lives. According to United Nations figures, it has also displaced more than 10 million people either internally or to neighboring countries since the conflict erupted.
Speaking from Jordan, Baker briefed journalists at the UN headquarters in New York via video about her experience during her visit to Sudan. She said, "The conflict is hitting the heart of Sudan hard," criticizing the lack of funding for humanitarian support efforts.
The UN official recounted her meeting with a 20-year-old woman at an overcrowded shelter in Port Sudan. "She was shy, so I asked her to sit next to me," Baker said. "She whispered softly in my ear about what had happened to her: she had been raped."
With a trembling voice, Baker said the young displaced woman, Zainab, "was raped while fleeing her home in Khartoum, where she lost everything. She was the sole breadwinner for her family, and this is a 20-year-old woman who should be in the prime of her life," according to the UN Arabic website.
Baker added that Zainab "endured 15 months of silence and pain before coming to that center, where she was able to receive psychosocial counseling."
Baker called for enhanced support efforts, noting that she saw "nurseries overflowing" with infants, sometimes with two or three babies sharing a crib, operating rooms lacking basic infection control measures, and a limited supply of medicines.
Through her conversations with the women in Sudan and hearing their stories directly, Baker said, "What they want more than anything else, more than water, more than food, is immediate protection from the ongoing war."
