Geneva: On Wednesday, United Nations experts stated that women and girls in war-ravaged Sudan are facing widespread and systematic violations of their rights, including gang rape, sexual slavery, and killings, particularly at the hands of Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a bloody conflict between the army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. The war has resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths, the displacement of over 13 million people, and a humanitarian crisis described by the United Nations as one of the worst in a country of around 50 million.
The conflict has divided the country into zones of control, with the army holding central, northern, and eastern Sudan, while the RSF and its allies dominate most of Darfur in the west and parts of the south.
Within this context of violence, women and girls are at heightened risk of gang rape, sexual slavery, and forced marriage, warned a group of nine independent UN experts. “We are deeply troubled by the harrowing reports of sexual violence, abductions, and killings targeting women and children, including in displacement camps, which reflect a systematic and brutal campaign against those least protected in Sudanese society,” the experts said in a statement.
They added, “Sexual violence continues to be used systematically as a weapon of war in Sudan”.
330 Cases of Sexual Violence
The experts, including special rapporteurs on violence against women and girls, torture, and contemporary forms of slavery, reported that at least 330 cases of conflict-related sexual violence have been documented since the start of the year, though the real number is believed to be much higher. They noted that many traumatized victims are thought to have died by suicide.
“Survivors are increasingly and openly contemplating suicide as a means of escaping the ongoing horrors of the conflict,” the statement said.
The experts, who are mandated by the UN Human Rights Council but do not speak on behalf of the United Nations, stressed that these “harrowing accounts underscore the scale of the mental health crisis among women and girls”.
They also highlighted the lack of access to care and support, as well as the impunity enjoyed by perpetrators, especially in areas where support systems have completely collapsed.
The experts pointed to a sharp rise in reports of enforced disappearances in RSF-controlled areas, where many women and girls are believed to have been abducted for sexual slavery and exploitation. Victims are taken from displacement camps, markets, and shelters amid a collapse of protection systems.
“The horrific scale of violence that women and girls continue to experience is an alarming testament to the erosion of protections for women and girls during times of conflict and normalization of such violence,” the experts said. “The international community must urgently step in to stem the tide”
