Sexual violence still a major threat as Sudan’s conflict grinds on

Twenty-two-year-old Mayada, a tea vendor seven months pregnant with twins, the result of a gang-rape by Sudanese security forces, in Khartoum, Sudan. She wanted to end the pregnancy, but a pharmacist refused to sell her pills to cause an abortion. She hurt herself, lifting heavy objects and throwing herself off furniture, hoping for a miscarriage. She gave birth to a daughter, while the other twin, a boy, died. She doesn’t know the names of the men who raped her [File: Nariman El-Mofty/AP Photo]

Cairo, Egypt – While sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) has increased notably in Sudan during the fighting that has torn the country apart since April, it has been an epidemic there long before April 15, according to Sara Musa, an activist with the Darfur Women’s Forum.

Musa and several other activists and humanitarian workers involved in Sudan were meeting in Cairo for the Sudan Humanitarian Conference at the end of November. They were there to discuss their experience working on the ground during the conflict and deliver their message to international aid organisations, some of whom were also attending.