2023-06-19 16:01:00
Likewise, in a second tweet, the Pontiff addresses the survivors of sexual assaults in conflicts and each person injured by this tragedy: “Although the violent treat you as objects, the Lord looks at your dignity and says to each one: ‘You are precious in my eyes, you are worthy of esteem and I love you’ (Is 43,4)”.
The Holy Father condemned this fact after the United Nations Organization (UN) denounced the mass rapes of women immersed in the war in Sudan, that has faced the army and the Rapid Support Forces (FAR) since April 2023.
As reported by the AFP agency, most of the survivors say they have been raped by FAR men, especially in Khartoum and in the Darfur region.
Likewise, since the war began in Ukraine in February 2022, there have been numerous cases of sexual violence against women and girls of the areas invaded by the Russian army.
The term “conflict-related sexual violence” refers, according to a UN report, to “rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, forced sterilization, forced marriage and any other form of violence of comparable severity linked (directly or indirectly) to a conflict”.
And UN Security Council report published in 2021 specifies that growing inequality, displacement due to wars, increased militarization, reduced civic space, and the illicit circulation of weapons aggravate widespread sexual violence.
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