Darfur - New York: Europe and the Arabs
From Darfur, Toby Harward, Deputy UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, stressed the urgent need to ensure unimpeded humanitarian access and increase funding for the life-saving humanitarian response.
In a video he recorded in Arabic and posted on his account on the
He stated that, during the past few days, he held positive meetings with the authorities and military parties in Mellit and El Fasher regarding two urgent necessities, the first of which is the need for unhindered access of humanitarian aid to the population in all states affected by the conflict, regardless of who controls the region.
The second imperative is the need to significantly increase humanitarian funding to enable a response of the scale and scope required. He said that many thousands of innocent people may die very soon if the United Nations and its partners do not obtain the necessary humanitarian access and funding to respond to this humanitarian disaster.
For her part, Sudanese activist Haneen Ahmed said that Sudanese women have been paying a heavy price for the war that has been going on in the country for about a year. She added that the parties to the war used women's bodies as weapons in this war. She warned that women are exposed to various types of violations and suffer from the disastrous repercussions of war.
Haneen Ahmed holds a master's degree in the field of peace and conflict. She recently participated in a high-level panel discussion organized by UN Women, in cooperation with the African Union, on the sidelines of the Commission on the Status of Women, which concluded its work in March.
Following her participation in the UN event, she said that women and girls in Sudan had been subjected to sexual assault, kidnapping, sexual slavery and forced marriage, noting accounts from eyewitnesses about the abduction of girls and their exploitation for sexual purposes. She stressed the need to form community protection networks reinforced by international organizations with the aim of protecting women and girls on the ground. According to what was stated in the United Nations news bulletin, a copy of which we received this Thursday morning.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, had said that the heavy artillery used in the war in Sudan constituted only one part of the armament, noting that sexual violence as a weapon of war, including rape, remained a “distinctive and despicable feature.” “This crisis has been going on since its beginning.
He said that his office - since the outbreak of the conflict last April 2023 - "has documented 60 incidents of sexual violence related to the conflict, including at least 120 victims throughout the country, the vast majority of whom are women and girls."
The High Commissioner explained, "It is unfortunate that these numbers do not largely reflect reality, referring to reports that stated that "men wearing the uniform of the Rapid Support Forces and armed men affiliated with it are responsible for 81% of the documented incidents."