Sudan’s warring parties, particularly the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have committed widespread acts of sexual violence against countless women and girls in the country’s capital Khartoum and surrounding areas since conflict broke out in April 2023.
A new Human Rights Watch report documents incidents of rape, including gang rape, as well as the forced marriage of women and girls in Khartoum. Victims ranged from ages nine to at least 60. Some held by the RSF also described conditions that could amount to sexual slavery. Men and boys have also been raped, including in detention. These acts constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, of which Sudan’s warring groups have committed many.
War in Sudan
Things have gone from bad to worse in Sudan since April 2023 when fighting broke out in Khartoum between the RSF, an independent military force, and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). Fighting rapidly spread to other parts of the country, and the capital has seen intense fighting since. Civilians have borne the brunt of the conflict.
The parties have indiscriminately used explosive weapons across Khartoum and, in the case of SAF, used air-dropped bombs in civilian neighborhoods and against essential infrastructure, leaving the capital in ruins.
The RSF have since entrenched themselves in Khartoum’s residential areas, where they have occupied homes, businesses, and essential infrastructure, notably healthcare facilities.
“Khartoum is Not Safe for Women!”
HRW research also shows the destructive impact of the warring parties’ attacks on health care, willful blocking of aid, and obstruction of humanitarian assistance in Khartoum.
Trapped in the city’s neighborhoods by the fighting and occupying forces, victims of sexual violence and other crimes are left feeling like nowhere is safe.
“I have slept with a knife under my pillow for months in fear from the raids that lead to rape by RSF,” a woman living in an area controlled by the RSF told HRW. “Since this war started, it is not safe anymore to be a woman living in Khartoum under RSF.”
Our research in Sudan also highlights the devastating health and mental health consequences for rape survivors, many of whom described or showed symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress
and depression, including suicidal thoughts, anxiety, fear, and sleeplessness.
Protect Civilians Now
There is no evidence that either party is taking steps to stop its forces from committing rape or attacking health care. But people at imminent risk of abuse and survivors of sexual violence need to know they aren’t being forgotten.
Local emergency responders need support to carry out life-saving work and those responsible for ongoing sexual violence, attacks on emergency personnel, health facilities, and the blocking of aid need to be held to account.
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