In El Obeid, Sudanese women face drones by day, rape by night, to reach water

In El Obeid, women and girls now face an impossible choice over something as basic as a bucket of water: risk a drone strike by collecting it in daylight, or risk rape by waiting until dark. Gender equality agency UN Women sounded the alarm this week over what it called a “dual terror” gripping the North Kordofan capital.“In El Obeid, Sudan, drone attacks during the day and sexual violence at night have left no safe window for women and girls to collect water,” said Anna Mutavati, UN Women’s regional director for East and Southern Africa, briefing journalists in Geneva from Nairobi.The pattern, she said, echoes atrocities documented in El Fasher last year.No safe hourDrones have targeted water points and distribution sites during the day, pushing women to wait for nightfall in the belief that darkness offers cover. Instead, Ms. Mutavati said, many have been “harassed, raped, and subjected to other forms of sexual violence” while simply trying to fill a jerrycan.Foreign-made drones flooding into Sudan have pushed the war deeper into civilian life, bringing critical infrastructure within range. The UN’s human rights chief Volker Türk warned in May that the conflict was “on the cusp o...