The men armed in Sudan have raped hundreds of children, including some up to 1, this week said the United Nations Children’s Agency, as a catastrophic civil war approaching the third year.
Sudan’s health providers have registered 221 cases of rape from the beginning of 2024, according to the UNICEF report. Among the victims, 147 were girls and 74 were boys. Sixteen children were under 5 and four were only one year old.
The report incorporates first -hand accounts of victims and witnesses, including one in which captive children are described as selected by armed men and then return to their blood -covered and almost unconscious barracks. Some were subjected to band violation.
The Children’s Agency recorded cases of serious physical injuries, psychological abuse and children’s marriage. Some of the victims were infected with HIV and other sexually transmitted viruses.
There is no complete data on sexual violence in Sudan, but a search mission of events of 2024 reported that gender -based violence, including rape and sexual slavery, predominated in areas where the war between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary group, rapid support forces, was being received.
The war, which broke out in April 2023, has been marked by atrocities On both sides, murders ethnically and accusations of genocide. The conflict has killed many tens of thousands of people and has displaced more than 11 million, according to Some estimates.
The United Nations Mission of 2024 found That the two parts of the conflict had perpetrated sexual violence, but that armed men carrying uniform quick support forces or the dress that the group’s allies often wore were identified as « major » authors.
Tess Ingram, UNICEF spokesman and lead author of the new report, said that it had spent weeks talking to survivors of children’s sexual violence in Sudan. It was run over by the impossible options that survivors usually face after violence.
« Some people may think that horror and suffering end when rape is over, but this is not the case, especially in Sudan, » said Ms. Ingram.
Survivors have to decide whether or not to spread the violation of their family and others in the community and the risk of being dismissed, publicly identified or considered as a collaborator.
« In Sudan, socially, they are the survivors and not the authors who carry this cultural burden of stigma and shame associated with rape, » said Ms. Ingram.
Ms. Ingram said that some of the children who were impregnated with their attackers chose to give their babies adoption, while others chose to keep them.
He explained the experience of a survivor who grew up in foster care and decided to raise his son, because he did not want the baby to go through the same ordeal he had. But the shelters did not want to take a pregnant woman.
« Now, the 8 months of the baby and they still have no house to live, » said Mrs. Ingram.
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