Rape becomes ‘weapon of war’

Sudan is at breaking point, says a BBC News report. After 17 months of a civil war which has devastated the country, the army has launched a major offensive in the capital Khartoum, targeting areas in the hands of its bitter rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The RSF seized most of Khartoum at the start of the conflict, while the army controls the twin city of Omdurman, just across the River Nile. The military attacked across two bridges which up until now have been closed and contested. Reports say it has secured a bridgehead on the eastern side for the first time since the conflict began. Travellers described being subjected to lawlessness, looting and brutality in a conflict that the UN says has forced more than 10.5m people to flee their homes. But it is sexual violence that has become a defining characteristic of the protracted conflict, which started as a power struggle between the army and the RSF but has since drawn in local armed groups and fighters from neighbouring countries. The UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said rape was being used as ‘a weapon of war’. A recent UN fact-finding mission documented several cases of rape and rape threats from members of the army, but found that large-scale sexual violence was committed by the RSF and its allied militias, and amounted to violations of international law.