Sudanese Women's Groups Demand Urgent International Funding, Accountability for Conflict-Related Abuses Against Women and Girls

Sudanese women's organisations, led by the Sudanese Women's Union (SWU) and a growing coalition of partner groups, have issued a formal memorandum demanding immediate international funding, protection services, and accountability for widespread abuses against women and girls in Sudan's conflict.

“International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, November 25 (Image: UNWomen) The Sudanese Women’s Union (SWU)* has created an open memorandum to be signed, addressed to various UN, international and regional bodies on the occasion ofInternational Women’s Day, which falls on March 8, calling for the activation of independent international accountability mechanisms for the war in Sudan”

Dabanga Radio TV Online

The memorandum documents a widespread, systematic pattern of grave violations against Sudanese women, including murder, individual and collective rape, sexual slavery and exploitation, abduction and forced marriage, sexual torture, unlawful detention, and displacement.

Dabanga Radio TV Online

It urges that these acts be recognised as war crimes and crimes against humanity and calls for the activation of independent international accountability mechanisms, field investigations, and referrals to international justice.

The memorandum also calls for urgent funding for medical, psychological, and protection services, an immediate ceasefire, and unhindered humanitarian access.

The coalition sets out concrete protection and service demands, calling for immediate international funding to create safe protection centres, deliver free health care in government facilities, provide medical and psychological care, support economic reintegration, and prioritise food and maternal health for pregnant and breastfeeding women.

Dabanga's account stresses support for "more than 4 million survivors, including pregnant and lactating women," while The North Africa Post reproduces WHO-linked figures that point to much larger service needs - "8.1 million women and girls of reproductive age" and an estimated "1.1 million births in 2026" - underscoring the scale and urgency behind calls for increased donor funding and humanitarian access.

Dabanga Radio TV Online

The memorandum urges international mechanisms to investigate and refer allegations "to international justice," and to impose targeted sanctions on perpetrators.

“International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, November 25 (Image: UNWomen) The Sudanese Women’s Union (SWU)* has created an open memorandum to be signed, addressed to various UN, international and regional bodies on the occasion ofInternational Women’s Day, which falls on March 8, calling for the activation of independent international accountability mechanisms for the war in Sudan”

Dabanga Radio TV Online

Dabanga records the coalition’s call for activation of "independent international accountability mechanisms" and notes the EU calling for "specific penalties, a special commission of inquiry and redress for crimes such as sexual violence, starvation and forced displacement."

The North Africa Post calls for referral of alleged crimes since the war’s outbreak in April 2023 — including murder, rape, sexual slavery and forced marriage — to international justice and recognition as war crimes and crimes against humanity, and it adds an explicit call for targeted sanctions on perpetrators.

Both sources convey a sense of urgency and appeal directly to international and regional bodies — UN, EU and others — to act.

Dabanga emphasises the movement’s timing around International Women’s Day and records the EU echoing the memorandum’s calls for political, diplomatic and economic pressure for a ceasefire and humanitarian access for "some 20 million people in need."

Dabanga Radio TV Online

The North Africa Post underscores the scale of reproductive health needs and explicitly ties the coalition’s demands to WHO data, pressing donors to prioritise maternal and reproductive services.

Together, the accounts present complementary pictures: an advocacy push blending legal accountability with large-scale humanitarian funding needs, and the two outlets differ on date, signatory counts and which statistics they foreground.