SIHA host Pan-African Feminist Peace Conference to Spotlight GVB and Atrocities in Sudan’s Ongoing Conflict

By: Idress Hamza
22 November, 2023, Kenya, Nairobi. The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) has organized a two-day Pan-African Feminist Peace Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. The Conference aims to extend solidarity and support to Sudanese civilians and bring attention to the ramifications of Sudan’s current war on women and their communities. The Solidarity Conference discussed the importance of women’s access to decision-making and provided a platform to debate the politics of gender disparity and impunity that have dominated Sudan’s political environment for decades, with a wide range of participation from Sudanese civil society organisations and Women activists.
Whoever, efforts to maintain and obtain power in Sudan are highly gendered; mass atrocities, including sexual violence, as well as other forms of gender-based violence, have been used by every regime, first under the al-Bashir regime and the militant Islamists who enabled violations against the rights of women and girls in both urban and rural areas, but particularly in Darfur, where the al-Bashir regime established the Janjaweed, who later became the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to control and intimidate civilians in Darfur. The mass protests led by women and youth beginning in December 2018 can be viewed as a direct response to how women’s bodies and voices have been systematically under attack for the last two decades.

Moreover, War broke out in Sudan on April 15, 2023, between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF stormed the capital Khartoum, and the conflict spread to other Sudanese States.
The war has also resulted in millions of women losing their livelihoods and savings as they fled from RSF soldiers, who have been robbing and forcing civilians out of their homes, looting banks, and destroying civilian infrastructure including hospitals and schools. UNICEF estimates that 6.5 million children in Sudan can no longer attend school as a result of the conflict, bringing the estimated total number of children out of school in Sudan to 19 million children. On the other hand, the SAF’s obstruction of the entrance of humanitarian into the country continues to pose severe challenges in ensuring that aid reaches those most in need.