The Regional Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for Arab States, Laila Baker, said that UNFPA and its partners in Sudan are making every effort to provide life-saving services for women and girls, especially survivors of sexual violence.
She appealed to the international community and the warring parties not to allow women and girls to be used as tools of war.
She pointed out that around 84,000 pregnant women in Sudan are expected to give birth in the next three months under extremely challenging conditions.
Baker expressed concern over what she described as “complacency and silence” about the situation in Sudan, the lack of global attention to what is happening, and the failure to ensure that women’s safety and security are not treated as a secondary issue.
She stressed that women’s safety and security in dignified childbirth, their ability to care for themselves and their families, and access to safe healthcare are universal rights.
