UN Women: 11 million women and girls bear the brunt as Sudan's famine deepens
Around 73.7 percent of women "do not meet minimum dietary diversity, reflecting extremely poor diets and a heightened risk of malnutrition," the agency reports.
The UN Women has called for urgent action to protect and prioritise women and girls in Sudan, where the ongoing conflict and deepening hunger crisis have left millions in peril.
"For over two consecutive years, every front line in Sudan has cut through the bodies, homes, livelihoods, and futures of women and girls, who have endured the sharpest edge of Sudan's horrific conflict," Anna Mutavati, UN Women regional director for East and Southern Africa, told journalists in Geneva on Tuesday.
According to the UN Women's latest Gender Dimensions of Food Insecurity in Sudan alert, nearly 11 million women and girls are now acutely food insecure.
"Simply being a woman in Sudan is a strong predictor of hunger," Mutavati said.
As fighting intensifies in Al Fasher and food insecurity spreads across Darfur, women and girls face "extreme hunger, displacement, death, and sexual and gender-based violence," she added.
The situation has further deteriorated with famine officially declared by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) in Al Fasher and Kadugli as of November.
UN urges urgent aid for women
According to UN Women's findings, 73.7 percent of women "do not meet minimum dietary diversity, reflecting extremely poor diets and a heightened risk of malnutrition."
Mutavati stressed the urgent need to ensure that the specific needs of women and girls are addressed in humanitarian responses, emphasising that they are among the hardest hit by Sudan's escalating crisis.
She also called for an immediate halt to all violence in Sudan, safe corridors for women, girls, and all civilians, prioritisation of women and female-headed households in food assistance, and restoration and in rebuilding of their livelihoods by humanitarian actors.
Mutavati also urged "all parties to protect women and girls and uphold their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law".
Sudan faces a worsening humanitarian crisis amid a bloody conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions of people since April 2023.
On October 26, the RSF seized control of Al Fasher and committed massacres, according to local and international organisations, amid warnings that the assault could lead to the country’s geographical partition.