UN Women 10d ago

In Sudan, the United Nations verified more than 500 cases of conflict-related sexual violence in 2025, 98 per cent of victims were women and girls. The majority were targeted on the basis of ethnicity, as well as for their real or perceived affiliation with rival forces. As in most conflicts, the number of verified cases in Sudan is widely known to be just the tip of the iceberg due to insecurity. UN Women’s latest data shows that the number of women and girls requiring support for gender-based violence has quadrupled since the start of the war more than three years ago – reaching an estimated 12.4 million people in 2026 – the vast majority of whom are women and girls. In response to the sexual violence epidemic in Sudan, women across the country are working on the front lines, providing survivors with life-saving psychological support. Many of these women have been forced to flee their homes and are living in displacement camps themselves, facing extreme hardship and daily threat of violence. Among them is Al-Tatouma Juma, a psychosocial support officer in Tawila, North Darfur. Tawila is home to hundreds of thousands of displace people, including women and girls who fled El-Fasher, North Darfur. Al-Tatouma works for a local organization providing psychosocial support and services to women and girls, but she says, “it is simply not enough.” Like many women-led organizations across Sudan, her organization is operating under immense pressure while trying to meet growing needs with limited resources. Read more: https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/feature-story/2026/06/who-are-the-women-working-on-the-frontlines-of-sudan-wars-sexual-violence-epidemic