- UK galvanises global attention on Sudan, the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis, and the staggering scale of rape and sexual violence used against women and children in the conflict
- £20 million of new UK funding will support survivors of conflict-related sexual violence to access medical and psychological support in Sudan
- Yvette Cooper has heard first-hand how the world had failed to protect Sudan’s women and girls for nearly three years as she pushes for ceasefire in the conflict
The UK is stepping up support and improving frontline services for survivors of sexual violence in the Sudan conflict as the Foreign Secretary visited Adré on the Sudanese border in Chad today (Tuesday 3rd February).
After more than 1,000 days of conflict, Sudan is the largest humanitarian catastrophe of the 21st century – with famine spreading, infrastructure collapsed, and 12 million people displaced. The evidence of atrocities is undeniable, especially against women and children who bear an intolerable burden. A war is being waged on women’s bodies with unprecedented levels of sexual violence, sexual slavery, and abductions.
The new £20m of UK funding will mean survivors will be connected to support, and communities will be given the tools to tackle the stigma that survivors and children born of rape endure, comprehensively improving the quality of frontline services and taking long term measures to prevent violence against women and girls.
The Foreign Secretary is calling for urgent global action to secure a ceasefire and demanding pressure from all nations on the warring parties to halt the bloodshed and to protect women and children from rape and violence.
Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, said
The world must not look away. The international community has failed the women of Sudan. The stories of brutal attacks, sexual torture, public rape used as weapons in conflict against fleeing women and children are truly horrendous. This is a war waged on women’s bodies. Yet too often these stories are not heard, and the world turns its back.
These criminal attacks on Sudan’s women are part of the biggest humanitarian crisis of the 21st century and we urgently need concerted international action in pursuit of a ceasefire and peace.
Sudan’s conflict impacts on security and migration not just in the region but much more widely too – that’s why this crisis affects us all. The UK will be relentless in keeping the international spotlight on the horrors taking place in Sudan.
The UK is stepping up support for survivors, we will not look away. The world must come together to stem the bloodshed, protect women and girls, and drive urgent momentum towards peace.
In Chad, the Foreign Secretary saw the UK’s values in action, visiting a hospital supported by UK funding, that treats survivors of sexual violence.
The war in Sudan has triggered the world’s largest displacement crisis, with over 12 million people displaced. 1.2 million of these refugees have fled to Chad, directly impacting Chad’s security and stability.
Meeting with Foreign Ministers from Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Chad, and the African Union’s Chairperson and Peace and Security Commissioner, the Foreign Secretary discussed the importance of working with Sudan’s border nations alongside the US led Quad and the international community to pursue an urgently needed ceasefire in Sudan.
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