The UN envoy was shocked by the level of violence that occurred

Surprise over conflict

“Modern Warfare Test Ground”

The needs in Sudan are enormous. Unicef’s envoy to the country has already compared the situation to the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

Sudan envoy for the UN children’s fund Unicef, Sheldon Yett, compared the situation in Sudan to the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s. “A lot of what’s happening in parts of Sudan right now reminds me of that. Reports of frenzy. A joy in killing,” he told Spiegel. “There have been targeted acts of violence against various ethnic groups.”

Yett added: “The testimonies of the survivors are shocking: murder, extortion, rape. Some paid huge sums of money to escape. The whole order was completely destroyed,” said Yett, who said he witnessed the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s. Sudan is a testing ground for modern warfare.

In Rwanda in 1994, Hutu militia killed at least 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in just 100 days.

Women fleeing the Sudanese town of Al-Fashir report killings, systematic rape and the disappearance of their children after being captured by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The UN women’s organization announced this on Tuesday. The fall of Al-Fashir on October 26 consolidated the RSF’s control of the Darfur region in its two-and-a-half-year war with the Sudanese army. People fleeing the city described civilians being shot in the streets and killed in drone strikes.

Women who fled Al-Fashir witnessed “horrors that no one should have to endure,” UN Women Regional Director for East and Southern Africa Anna Mutavati told journalists in Geneva via video link from Nairobi on Tuesday. Sexual violence is widespread. “There is increasing evidence that rape is deliberately and systematically used as a weapon of war,” he said. “Women’s bodies have become sites of crime in Sudan. There are no longer safe places for women to gather safely, seek refuge or even receive the most basic mental health care.”

The humanitarian situation is dire. Around eleven million women and girls are affected by severe food shortages in the famine-stricken Darfur region. UN Women warns that they face sexual violence even while looking for food. Reports from Darfur describe women searching for wild leaves and berries to cook into soup. “This exposes them to additional risks such as kidnapping and sexual violence,” said Mutavati.