GENEVA: Women and girls in war-ravaged Sudan face gang slavery and killings, particularly at the hands of the paramilitary forces. The war has killed tens of thousands, displaced more than 13 million people and triggered what the United Nations calls one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.
Amid the carnage, women and girls are particularly vulnerable and face escalating risks of gang trafficking and forced marriage, warned a group of nine independent United Nations experts. "We are deeply troubled by the harrowing reports of physical violence, abductions, and killings targeting women and children, including in displacement camps, which reflect a systematic and brutal campaign against those least protected in Sudanese society," they said in a statement.
The experts, including the special rapporteurs on violence against women and girls, on torture and on contemporary forms of slavery, noted that so far this year at least 330 cases of conflict-related violence had been documents. The real number is surely far higher, they said, warning that a number of traumatised victims were known to have committed suicide. — AFP
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