Rights group says sexual violence is rampant in Sudan's conflict, calls for international protection

CAIRO — Human Rights Watch on Monday accused the paramilitary group fighting against the military in Sudan's civil war of rampant sexual violence against women, including gang rape and forced marriages of girls. The international rights group also accused the military of sexual violence.

The group, in a report released Monday, called for the United Nations and the African Union to establish a joint mission to protect civilians in Sudan as more than 15 months of fighting between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces show no signs of abating.

“The Rapid Support Forces have raped, gang raped, and forced into marriage countless women and girls in residential areas in Sudan’s capital,” said Laetitia Bader, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

The group accused both warring parties of blocking survivors’ access to critical emergency care, and said the military has “willfully restricted” shipments of humanitarian supplies to RSF-controlled areas, including medical supplies and aid workers since October last year.

The RSF, meanwhile, has pillaged medical supplies and occupied medical facilities, it said. RSF fighters also committed sexual violence against service providers, the group said, citing local responders.

Sudan plunged into chaos in April last year when simmering tensions between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country. The fighting has killed more than 14,000 people and wounded 33,000 others, according to the U.N., but rights activists say the true toll could be much higher.

The conflict has created the world’s largest displacement crisis, with over 11 million people forced to flee their homes.

The formerly military-aligned RSF grew out of the Janjaweed militias formed during the conflict in Darfur in the 2000s by former President Omar al-Bashir, who ruled the country for three decades until he was overthrown during a popular uprising in 2019. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court for charges of genocide and other crimes committed during the conflict.

In the report released Monday, Human Rights Watch said it documented widespread sexual violence, as well as forced and child marriage during the conflict in Khartoum and the nearby cities of Omdurman and Bahri, or Khartoum North. The three cities are known as Greater Khartoum.

The group said 18 health care providers had cared for a total of 262 survivors of sexual violence aged between nine and 60 years old between April 2013 and February this year.

“I have slept with a knife under my pillow for months in fear from the raids that lead to rape by RSF,” the group quoted an unnamed 20-year-old woman living in an area controlled by the RSF as saying in early 2024. “Since this war started, it is not safe anymore to be a woman living in Khartoum under RSF.”

These acts constitute “war crimes and crimes against humanity,” it said.

The group said most of the cases were attributed to the Rapid Support Forces, but some cases of sexual violence also were blamed on the military, especially when the military retained control of Omdurman earlier this year.

The group said men and boys also have been raped, including in detention.

Both the RSF and the military didn’t immediately answer requests for comment.

Human Rights Watch said neither party has taken meaningful steps to prevent its forces from committing rape or attacking health care services, nor to independently and transparently investigate crimes committed by their forces.

It said an RSF spokesman denied occupying hospitals or medical centers in Khartoum and its sister cities, but didn’t provide evidence that the group has carried out effective investigations into allegations of sexual violence by its forces.

It called on the African Union and the United Nations to jointly deploy a new mission to protect civilians in Sudan, including preventing sexual and gender-based violence.

“The United Nations and African Union need to mobilize this protection and states should hold to account those responsible for ongoing sexual violence, attacks on local responders, health facilities and the blocking of aid,” Bader said.

Clashes were reported over the weekend in eastern Sudan and in the city of al-Fasher, the military's last stronghold in the sprawling western region of Darfur. The RSF has besieged al-Fasher for months in an effort to seize control.

An attack by the RSF on al-Fasher killed at least 31 civilians and wounded 66 others, according to the Coordination of the Resistance Committee in a city, a local pro-democracy group that documents violence in the city.

The RSF shelled residential areas and infrastructure in the city including a hospital and a livestock market, it said.

Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, condemned the attack on targets including hospitals, apartments and markets, saying it caught many civilians by surprise as al-Fasherhad experienced relative calm for about two weeks.

International experts warned last month that 755,000 people are facing famine in the coming months, and that 8.5 million people are facing extreme food shortages.