RSF rape atrocities documented

Gunmen from a notorious militia roamed Sudan’s capital gang-raping ‘countless’ women and girls, some as young as nine. That’s according to an investigation documenting the shocking prevalence of sexual violence in Khartoum during the country’s civil war. Some of the attacks by members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were so brutal that females died ‘due to the violence associated with the act of rape’. The Guardian reports that research by Human Rights Watch (HRW) indicate that many were abducted, tortured and imprisoned as sex slaves. Mothers were raped attempting to protect their daughters. ‘The RSF have raped, gang-raped, and forced into marriage countless women and girls in residential areas in Sudan’s capital,’ said Laetitia Bader, HRW’s Horn of Africa director. Shortly after the civil war erupted between the RSF and the Sudanese military 15 months ago, the RSF overran parts of Khartoum and its sister cities, Omdurman and Khartoum North. Access to the capital has since been hampered by fighting, but HRW researchers interviewed 42 care providers, social workers, lawyers and emergency volunteers in Khartoum to establish how women and girls had been treated. At least 262 survivors of sexual violence were documented, aged between nine and 60.

A midwife in Khartoum told HRW researchers of the constant anxiety women faced: ‘We are afraid all the time from RSF raids into our homes. We can’t sleep from this fear. Daily there is a raid on a house, they try to rape women.’ At least four women and girls died from their injuries after being raped with many others hospitalised, said the report. One teenage girl was shot in the thigh after being raped by a group of RSF soldiers and died in hospital ‘from heavy bleeding caused by the bullets’. The Guardian reports that Bader urged the AU and UN to deploy a civilian protection force to prevent further war crimes and crimes against humanity. The report also accused soldiers belonging to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) of sexual violence against the people of Khartoum. Although fewer cases were attributed to the state military, researchers documented an ‘uptick’ in cases after SAF took control of Omdurman in early 2024. Men and boys have also been raped, including in detention, according to the report. Babikir Elamin, spokesperson of the Sudanese Government’s Foreign Ministry, contested the report’s findings, adding: ‘As far as Sudanese Armed Forces are concerned, this report contains unsubstantiated allegations that have obviously never been cross-examined or put forward to SAF to respond to. We categorically deny the defamatory suggestion by the report’s author that SAF or the Government of Sudan condones sexual violence at any time.’