Volker Türk - UN Human Rights Chief visit to Al Afad IDP camp, Sudan

The situation in Sudan constitutes one of the world’s gravest protection crises, which has triggered the world’s largest displacement of populations and soaring humanitarian needs. 

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk began his visit to Sudan on 14 January. Türk last conducted an official visit to Sudan in November 2022. He visited the Al Afad IDP camp in Northern State of Sudan on 16-17 January 2026.

The UN Human Rights Chief and his team met with people displaced by grave violence in Darfur and Kordofan regions who arrived over the past year.

The UN Human Rights Office in Sudan is monitoring and reporting on violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law. 

Conflict-related sexual violence is pervasive and widespread in Sudan, affecting women, girls, men and boys. The High Commissioner met some these victims in a safe area set up in the camp by a partner agency UNFPA. He heard the harrowing plight suffered by these women.

Since the onset of the conflict, OHCHR has documented the use of sexual violence – including rape and gang rape, abduction and sexual slavery – as a weapon of war, often perpetrated based on ethnic identity or perceived affiliation with an opposing party. 

“I met nine women and girls, all of them survivors of sexual violence, and they told me horrific stories. They were…I've never seen so traumatised individuals. What they told me was about gang rape in El-Fasher. When they tried to flee, they told me about the men being taken out and killed in front of them, their brothers, their sons. Then, some of them were taken – older women, younger women – taken away, sometimes held for ransom, and gang raped for days, in some instances. The trauma that they have gone through is unspeakable. And I can only bring these voices of these women to the attention of the international community because we cannot stand by idly, and see this happen again and again and again, because this is a weapon of warfare - sexual violence is used as a weapon of warfare. It's a war crime. And it's a crime against humanity,” the High Commissioner said.

Sexual violence has lasting impacts on survivors, family and society, but remains vastly under-reported.Humanitarian personnel and women human rights defenders face increasing challenges in operating safely and sustainably in supporting survivors of sexual violence.  

Access to medical, legal and psychosocial support services remains severely constrained due to the impact of the conflict on health and rule of law systems, and accountability rare. 

Türk will return to Port Sudan on Sunday, 18 January 2026. He will hold two press conferences at the end of his visit – one in Port Sudan and another in Nairobi, Kenya.  

For more information and media requests, please contact:

Travelling with the High Commissioner:

Ravina Shamdasani: ravina.shamdasani@un.org 

Anthony Headley: anthony.headley@un.org

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