"Countless" Women And Girls As Young As Nine Gang-Raped By Paramilitaries In Sudan: Report (X image@MohanadElbalal)
“Countless” women and girls were subjected to gang-rape in Sudan. Girls, as young as nine, were targeted by the gunmen from a notorious militia in the country, according to an investigation documenting the shocking prevalence of sexual violence in Khartoum during the country’s civil war, said The Guardian.
As per Human Rights Watch (HRW), some of the attacks by members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were so brutal that women and girls died “due to the violence associated with the act of rape”.
ccounts from women and girls in areas of Khartoum seized by the RSF indicate many were abducted, tortured and imprisoned as sex slaves. Mothers were raped attempting to protect their daughters, said the report. Some girls told RSF fighters they were married and not virgins in an attempt to avoid being attacked, it said.
Shortly after the civil war was started 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 city has been tampered due to the fighting.
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However, 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.
On several occasions, emergency volunteers were themselves were reported to be raped by RSF as they tried to help survivors of sexual violence, the report said.
The report suggests that huge numbers of women and girls in the Sudanese capital are leading a hellish life. “I slept with a knife under my pillow for months in fear from the raids that lead to rape by RSF. It is not safe any more to be a woman living in Khartoum under RSF”, a 20-year-old girl told the researchers.
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, said the report.
HRW reports that both sides had blocked survivors’ access to critical emergency healthcare and had attacked healthcare workers, constituting to a war crime.
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SAF was “wilfully restricting humanitarian supplies”, including medical supplies, by imposing a de facto blockade on aid entering RSF-controlled areas of Khartoum since October, said the report.
Babikir Elamin, spokesperson of the Sudanese government’s foreign ministry, contested the report’s findings. He said, “As far as Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) 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”.
“Contrary to the claims in the report that SAF blocks delivery of medical supplies, it is SAF who protects, guards, and often undertakes delivery of these supplies including using air dropping”, he added.
The RSF wrote to HRW last week to reject claims that it occupies any hospitals or medical centres in Khartoum, but did not offer any evidence it had conducted investigations into allegations of sexual violence by its forces, said The Guardian.
