UN Women’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Anna Mutavati, has called for urgent global intervention to protect women and girls as Sudan plunges further into food insecurity amid ongoing conflict. Speaking from the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Mutavati highlighted the devastating impact the two-year crisis has had on homes, livelihoods, and futures.
A recent UN Women report, Gender Dimensions of Food Insecurity in Sudan, reveals that nearly 11 million women and girls are now acutely food insecure, confirming that being female in Sudan dramatically increases the risk of hunger. The alert notes that famine was officially declared in El Fasher and Kadugli in November 2025, with the crisis spreading rapidly across Darfur and Kordofan. Shockingly, 73.7 percent of women fail to meet minimum dietary diversity, underscoring rising malnutrition and dangerously poor diets.
The report details the human toll: as fighting intensified, women and girls endured extreme hunger, displacement, death, and widespread sexual and gender-based violence. Many mothers skip meals to feed their children, while adolescent girls often receive the smallest portions.
Despite these dire conditions, women-led organizations continue to play a central role in the humanitarian response. UN Women is calling on all parties to immediately halt hostilities, establish safe corridors for civilians, and prioritize aid for women and female-headed households. The agency also urged donors to increase support for these frontline women’s groups.
“Women and girls in Sudan are not statistics; they are the measure of our shared humanity,” Mutavati said. “Every day the world delays action, another mother gives birth under fire, buries a child from hunger, or vanishes without justice.”
