Sudan Events – Agencies
Leila Baker, Regional Director for the Arab States at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), described the situation in Sudan as one of the worst she has witnessed in her 30-year career at the United Nations.
Speaking to reporters at the UN headquarters in New York via video from Amman, Baker shared her observations from her recent visit to Sudan, describing the “tragic situation” there, saying women and girls have been stripped of all their basic necessities.
“Imagine thousands of women crowded in shelters where they have no clean water, no hygiene, no food for their next meal, and no medical care for these displaced women,” she added.
Baker mentioned visiting a women’s shelter in the Deem Arab area in Port Sudan, which was designed to accommodate a few hundred people but now houses more than 2,000 displaced women. She described the environment as extremely overcrowded.
Despite this overcrowding, Baker noted that the women and girls there were happy simply to be among other women where they could gather, access services, and speak freely for the first time after being displaced multiple times.
She recalled a particularly emotional moment during her time in Port Sudan when she sat on the ground with some women who shared their stories. One shy young woman whispered in Baker’s ear, gently revealing that she had been raped.
Baker said that the young displaced woman, Zainab, was raped while fleeing her home in Khartoum, where she lost everything. Zainab, who was the sole provider for her family, is only 20 years old and should have been at the height of her life.
Zainab endured 15 months of silence and pain until she reached the center, where she finally received psychosocial counseling, met other women who had gone through similar experiences, and began rebuilding her life.
