Britain’s Foreign Secretary has said she is “deeply worried” about more atrocities in Sudan after being asked about the growing influence of Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood in the civil war.
During questions in the UK Parliament, Yvette Cooper was asked about her concerns over whether Tehran and the Brotherhood were seeking to “deliberately foment extremism” that was leading to a “rejection of ceasefire efforts by the Sudanese regime”.
While she said she was “deeply concerned” about escalation from both warring parties – the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces – Ms Cooper added she was “deeply worried about the risks of further atrocities”.
Ms Cooper said she was in “continual contact with the US, UAE, Egypt and Saudis” who were all “supporting action for a ceasefire but we need that urgency of action”.
She added: “It’s essential we have the same co-ordinated energy, international energy to get peace in Sudan that we saw to get a ceasefire in Gaza.”
Later on Tuesday, the Foreign Secretary is due to say that the wars in Sudan, Gaza and Ukraine have led to an “epidemic of violence” against women and girls.
Ms Cooper will tell an event to launch All In, an international coalition to end violence against women, that abuse is “crossing borders at unprecedented scale and speed”. She will pledge to make tackling violence against women part of “policies for peace” in countries such as Sudan.
“With conflicts raging in Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza, rape is increasingly being used as a weapon of war,” she will tell the coalition, a panel of leading campaigners who have described the issue as a global emergency, in London.
“Numbers alone are inadequate but they should shock us nonetheless,” she will say. “One in every three women and girls worldwide will experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, 140 women and girls killed every day by a partner or close relative – more than 50,000 a year.”
Last month, Ms Cooper warned that protection for women from sexual violence is going backwards, with nearly a third of women and girls in conflict zones becoming victims. She said while the world experiences its worst cycle of conflict since the Second World War, more women than ever are being subjected to violence.
On Tuesday, she will call sexual violence a “scourge plaguing women”, causing an emergency at domestic and international level. The issue should also become part of policies on peace and security, to tackle the use of rape as a weapon of war “from atrocities in El Fasher in Sudan to the war in Ukraine”.
Ms Cooper will pledge to “go all in as Foreign Secretary” to ensure females around the world “can thrive and flourish, free from violence and free from fear”.
She will announce a British package of nearly £5 million ($6.6 million) to tackle online abuse. The politician, formerly UK home secretary, also launched an initiative to share learning globally.
This includes sharing evidence from Britain’s What Works to Prevent Violence initiative and recent learning from Spain’s database of domestic abuse perpetrators.
