The United Nations has revealed harrowing accounts of widespread sexual abuse in Sudan, where the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their allies have been accused of using rape as a weapon in the country’s ongoing war.
The UN’s latest report exposes a “staggering” level of sexual violence inflicted on Sudanese civilians, with victims ranging from young girls to elderly women.
The UN’s fact-finding mission, based on interviews with victims, families, and witnesses, documents severe human rights abuses committed by the RSF and allied militias.
Many of these attacks, the report says, were meant to instill terror and punish perceived enemies of the RSF.
According to Mohamed Chande Othman, the mission’s chair, “The sheer scale of sexual violence we have documented in Sudan is staggering.”
He added that these abuses reflect deliberate attempts to harm civilians, especially targeting specific ethnic groups in West Darfur.
One woman recounted a particularly chilling experience.
She said her attacker told her at gunpoint, “We will make you, the Masalit girls, give birth to Arab children.”
Another woman was reportedly held captive for over eight months, repeatedly raped, and ultimately impregnated by her captor.
This account is only one of many that illustrate the horrors faced by women in areas controlled by the RSF.
Sudan’s current war began in April 2023, triggered by a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and their former paramilitary allies, the RSF.
The RSF, which evolved from the notorious Janjaweed militias responsible for violence in Darfur two decades ago, now controls significant parts of the country, including West Darfur.
In areas like West Darfur, the RSF and Arab militias have allegedly used ethnic violence against the Masalit people.
Survivors report that attackers frequently used racial slurs and targeted non-Arabs during assaults, indicating that ethnicity is a driving factor in the abuse.
The report also reveals that victims of sexual violence range in age from as young as eight to as old as 75.
The impact on women and girls has been catastrophic, according to UN Women, who published a Gender Alert earlier this year.
The report shows that the demand for gender-based violence services has doubled, with an estimated 6.7 million people now in need of such support.
Most of these cases involve women and girls, though men and boys are not immune from abuse.
The war has displaced over 14 million people in Sudan, creating one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises.
While international attention has shifted to other global conflicts, Sudan’s war has led to thousands of deaths, mass displacement, and widespread hunger.
In regions like Khartoum, Darfur, and Kordofan, women and girls face heightened risks of sexual violence, with cases often going unreported due to fear of stigma and lack of support.
Many of the nearly 5.8 million internally displaced women and girls in Sudan remain vulnerable, living under the constant threat of assault.
“There is no safe place in Sudan now,” said Othman, highlighting the ongoing danger for women and girls in conflict zones.
The UN mission has also reported that RSF forces abduct women, keeping them as sex slaves, as part of a systematic campaign of abuse.
One report details how RSF soldiers captured women from the streets, assaulted them, and abandoned them, unconscious, on the roadside.
Victims described their attackers as RSF soldiers, often wearing scarves to conceal their identities.
The RSF, which has faced international scrutiny before, did not immediately respond to the latest allegations.
Previously, they have stated intentions to investigate any crimes committed by their members, though these claims have been met with skepticism by international observers.
The roots of Sudan’s current tragedy go back years.
In 2019, the RSF and the Sudanese military joined forces to oust Sudan’s longtime dictator, Omar al-Bashir, who had ruled the country for three decades.
Despite working together to bring down Bashir, the RSF and SAF soon turned against each other, leading to the ongoing conflict that has ravaged Sudan for the past 18 months.
The RSF’s tactics have drawn significant criticism from human rights organizations.
In a war that shows no signs of ending soon, Sudan’s women and girls continue to suffer in silence, with only a fraction of the abuse reported due to the isolation and trauma experienced by survivors.
Humanitarian groups have called for urgent international intervention, though the current political instability has hampered efforts to support victims effectively.
