UNITED NATIONS — Major cuts in humanitarian aid have left victims of sexual violence in conflicts around the world without lifesaving help as clinics and shelters close, a senior U.N. official warned Tuesday.
Pramila Patten, U.N. special representative on sexual violence in conflict, lashed out at the U.N. Security Council and the broader international community for making essential services for survivors the “least accessible at the very moment they are needed most.”
In conflict-torn eastern Congo, clinics are forced to turn away rape survivors because they aren’t able to provide basic care, she said.
And in conflicts in Sudan, Ukraine, northeastern Ethiopia and Gaza, “health care systems have been decimated" and humanitarian groups are having to do more with less to help victims, Patt