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The United Nations humanitarian chief raised the alarm on Monday over an "epidemic of sexual violence" against women in war-torn Sudan, saying the world "must do better".

"I feel ashamed that we have not been able to protect you, and I feel ashamed for my fellow men for what they have done," Tom Fletcher, who heads the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said on his first visit to Port Sudan.

The Red Sea city has become Sudan's de facto capital since April 2023, when Khartoum was engulfed by war between the regular military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

The war has claimed tens of thousands of lives, displaced more than 11 million people and created what the UN says is the worst humanitarian crisis in recent memory.

Nearly 26 million people -- around half the population -- face the threat of mass starvation, as both warring sides have been accused of using hunger as a weapon of war.

During his visit, Fletcher met army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and discussed efforts to "increase the delivery of aid across borders and across conflict lines".

Aid workers and humanitarian agencies say Burhan's army-aligned government has enforced severe bureaucratic hurdles to their work.

At an event in a Port Sudan school to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Fletcher said the world "must do better" by the women of Sudan, who have been exposed to systematic sexual violence.

The UN's independent international fact-finding mission for Sudan last month documented escalating sexual violence, including "rape, sexual exploitation and abduction for sexual purposes as well as allegations of enforced marriages and human trafficking".

"The sheer scale of sexual violence we have documented in Sudan is staggering," said Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the fact-finding mission.

"The situation faced by vulnerable civilians, in particular women and girls of all ages, is deeply alarming and needs urgent address," he added.