Conflicts: Sudan: UN representative calls for an end to violence against aid workers

The head of the UN Emergency Relief Office in Sudan, Eddie Rowe, has called for an end to violence against aid workers in the north-east African country. “Since conflict erupted in Sudan in mid-April, the country has become one of the most dangerous and difficult places to work for humanitarian workers in the world,” Lowe said Thursday. This year alone, 19 aid workers were killed.

The country is falling back into one of the worst chapters in its history. “There have not been as many deadly attacks on aid workers in Sudan since the height of the Darfur conflict in 2003-2006.” For more than 20 years there have been serious ethnic conflicts and human rights violations in the Darfur region in western Sudan.

Allegations of rape and sexual violence

The United Nations also accuses the RSF militia of more than 100 counts of rape and sexual slavery of women and girls. An expert report by the organization, citing eyewitness accounts, said Sudanese women and girls in the urban centers and in the western Darfur region were particularly at risk of violence. The women are therefore arrested by the RSF fighters, held under inhuman and degrading conditions and sexually abused. Due to the ongoing fighting, the women who sought protection from the attacks could hardly be helped. The UN therefore called on both parties again to end the violence.

In Sudan, the army under de facto President Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has been fighting the paramilitary militia Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of former deputy ruler Mohammed Hamdan Daglo since mid-April. The generals had seized power together, but fell out over power-sharing issues. According to the United Nations, the conflict has already displaced more than four million people and killed more than 4,000. The conflict between the army and the RSF is also re-igniting ethnic conflicts in Darfur.