Our Women, Peace and Security Conflict Tracker combines real-time data points and original analysis to offer gender-sensitive insight into conflict dynamics across 25 countries. The WPS Conflict Tracker is updated monthly to reflect developments for women’s participation, protection, prevention, and relief and recovery. This blog highlights select updates. To see the complete analysis across all 25 countries monitored, please visit the WPS Conflict Tracker website.
Spotlight: Impact of the March 28 earthquake in Myanmar
A 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit Myanmar on March 28, 2025, killing more than 3,600 people and worsening conditions for women and girls in a country already destabilized by civil war and previous climate disasters. Towns near the epicenter, including Mandalay and Naypyidaw, were particularly devastated, and most of those internally displaced by conflict in areas hardest hit by the earthquake are women and girls. The earthquake has left 173,000 pregnant women without access to healthcare and intensified a conflict-driven humanitarian crisis already impacting 10.4 million women and girls. In the wake of such devastation, women’s urgent needs—including protection from gender-based violence, reproductive healthcare, and sanitation—remain largely unmet. Military checkpoints and fighting continue to block aid delivery, while USAID funding cuts have further inhibited disaster response. The military junta continues to launch airstrikes into areas with widespread destruction of buildings and infrastructure, further complicating relief and recovery efforts. Women-led organizations are playing a crucial role in assessing the gendered impacts of conflict; their work must be supported and integrated into response efforts.
Risks & Opportunities
The WPS Conflict Tracker analyzes and identifies current risks and opportunities—including new developments, upcoming events, or looming threats—for women in the 25 conflict-affected settings we monitor. Updates for April 2025 include:
Central African Republic
- The Central African Republic’s Minister of State for Justice announced that local elections—scheduled for April 2025—would be further delayed to August 2025, with the presidential election to follow in December 2025. Local elections have been continuously delayed due, in part, to a lack of resources. These postponements come amidst increasing ethnic conflict and concern over conflict spillover from neighboring Sudan. Election planning must prioritize women’s ability to safely exercise their right to vote, including their security and wellbeing should violence erupt.
Haiti
- Sixty-five organizations—including Haitian groups and international allies—signed an open letter demanding the Transitional Presidential Council take greater action to protect women and girls and prioritize their needs in policymaking. This follows a February 2025 open letter which called for greater accountability for gender-based violence. Surging violence against women and girls, including reports of brutal and widespread sexual violence by gang members, remains an urgent threat.
Kosovo
- New reporting finds that the number of indictments for sexual violence committed during the 1998-1999 conflict increased in 2024, with 10 cases filed in 2024 compared to only four or five cases in the previous 25 years. This follows the implementation of a previously announced 20 percent increase in pensions, which benefit the women and men who experienced wartime sexual violence.
Libya
- Libyan authorities suspended ten aid organizations providing services for migrants—including support for survivors of human trafficking—after accusing these groups of seeking to change the ethnic make-up of Libyan society by encouraging migrants to stay. Migrant women, often from Ethiopia and Sudan, have reportedly been tortured, raped, held for ransom, and forced into sexual slavery. Shuttering these organizations curtails access to aid and services for migrant women and girls in Libya.
South Sudan
- The UN warned that South Sudan is nearing civil war following the arrest of Vice President Riek Machar and an escalation of violence. Rising conflict and political instability threaten women and girls’ security and ability to participate in public life, with more than 50,000 people displaced since February 2025. A return to full-blown intrastate conflict could cause rates of sexual and gender-based violence to spike—a pattern observed in the country’s prior civil war—particularly if violence fractures along ethnic lines. The current transitional government has yet to implement legitimate mechanisms to investigate wartime atrocities, including conflict-related sexual violence, as specified in the 2018 peace agreement.
Sudan
- Sudan brought a case against the United Arab Emirates in the International Court of Justice, accusing the country of complicity in genocide for its alleged support of the Rapid Support Forces armed group. Sudan’s submission to the Court highlighted widespread sexual violence and requested that the Court implement provisional emergency measures to prevent genocidal violence. The International Court of Justice heard the request on April 10, 2025.
Ukraine
- Ukrainian women’s organizations are struggling in the wake of USAID funding cuts as Russia’s full-scale war of aggression persists. A new UN Women report revealed that 72 percent of surveyed Ukrainian women’s organizations face severe disruption to critical services due to US aid cuts, with 35 organizations likely to shut down in the next six months without additional funding to replace lost resources. Women’s organizations provide lifesaving resources to women and girls and support the reporting and investigation of conflict-related sexual violence.
Yemen
- As tensions worsen—including between the United States and Houthi rebels— women’s insecurity is growing. Airstrikes targeting Houthis have hit schools, residential neighborhoods, and Bedouin tents, exposing women to displacement, injury, and death. At least 9.6 million women and girls are already in severe need of life-saving assistance, while 6 million women and girls face a higher risk of abuse and exploitation due to conflict. Cuts to US foreign aid reduce available resources for these women and girls, exacerbating need.
In The News
Meta’s Move to Limit Fact-Checking Endangers Women—and Democracy by Melanne Verveer and Kristine Baekgaard for Lawfare
This article explores the risks to women and democracy posed by Mark Zuckerberg’s recent decision to end Meta’s fact-checking program and to remove content restrictions, including for topics related to gender and immigration. This step undermines women’s safety and democratic participation by allowing digital violence against women and facilitating the proliferation of misogynistic speech. Digital violence against women is already pervasive, with 85 percent of women globally having experienced or witnessed online gender-based violence and up to 60 percent of women avoiding political participation due to fear of digital violence. Meta’s rollback of already meager digital protections is framed as an abdication of responsibility that particularly endangers women, minority communities, and democratic institutions. The authors emphasize the critical role of women-led civil society organizations in advancing digital safety and equality when governmental protections fall short.
Sexual Violence in Sudan with Hala Al-Karib for Assymetrical Haircuts Podcast (Episode 129) & An RSF atrocity, a mass evacuation, and another side to mutual aid in Sudan by Hanin Ahmed for The New Humanitarian
This reporting highlights both women’s vulnerability and strength amidst the war in Sudan. In the April 3, 2025, episode of Asymmetrical Haircuts, Hala Al-Karib—the Regional Director for the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa—discusses the widespread, systematic, and brutal sexual violence impacting Sudanese women and girls. She emphasizes the particular harm caused by persistent stigma, which often isolates survivors and exacerbates trauma. In her article for The New Humanitarian, Hanin Ahmed reveals a different side of women’s wartime experience in Sudan. As a member of the Khartoum State Emergency Response Rooms, she describes the immense, volunteer-led mass evacuation of civilians from Al Jazirah amidst growing attacks, including rapes, by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) armed group. Hanin’s story underscores women’s leadership, including through collective action networks.
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