The increasing need for gender-based violence-related services during the brutal conflict between rival militaries in Sudan has increased 100-fold since the crisis began.
This most recent violence, which began on April 15, 2023, between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) headed by General Abdul Fattah al-Burham and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF) headed by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, began in the capital city of Khartoum.
The growing conflict has destabilized regions of the nation state already recovering from war and political instability, as the deadly conflicts have engulfed much of the northeast African country.
Add to that, women have described detainment and rampant sexual abuse as militia members invade and take over the homes of families amid the widespread death and fighting. This type of violence may be the conflict in Sudan’s most egregious consequence.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), almost seven million Sudanese are at risk of gender-based violence. Along with various humanitarian organizations.
UNHCR reports that Sudanese women and girls “face alarming levels of sexual violence, sexual exploitation, and human trafficking both in conflict zones, during displacement, and in hosting countries.”
Several media outlet reports, including Al Jazeera, report that sexual violence, including rape of adolescents, “is ‘being used as a tactic of war’ (in Sudan) in violation of international law and laws protecting children.”
A recent report published by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said, “at least 221 children, including boys, were raped by armed men, according to records compiled by gender-based violence service providers in the North African nation.”
The report added that of those cases, “66 percent of the survivors were girls and the rest were boys. There were 16 survivors below the age of five, including four who were as young as one.”
Near the end of 2024, The Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC), The Sudan Family Planning Association (SFPA), and The Gender in Emergencies Group (GiE) launched a new report, “In Her Own Words: Voices of Sudan.” The report showcased stories of 22 internally displaced and refugee Sudanese women from all walks of life.
One of 22 stories showcased in “Women on the Front Lines in Sudan,” which can be found on womensrefugeecommission.org, is about 27-year-old, Tasabeeh Abdullah Mahmoud Mohammed. She worked for an international organization before being displaced and lived with her family in the state capital Nyala in South Darfur.
“Before the war, my father, mother, and I were responsible for the household income. We shared the responsibility. When the war began in April 2023, it was Ramadan, so we had plenty of food stored. We were still in South Darfur.
I was the only one receiving an income after the war. I bought extra food, and we shared it with our neighbors. In our neighborhood, we ate in groups. The men together and the women together,” she stated.
“The place we were living at was near the RSF camp. We were depending on the food we had because it was dangerous for both women and men to go out of our neighborhood. Women who attempted to go out to the market were either kidnapped or raped.
However, men were assassinated, especially men related to police or military. Young men were facing forced conscription. Hence, we were depending on each other to make and provide food for others. This is what we were doing before we got out,” said Tasabeeh Abdullah Mahmoud Mohammed.
She and her family fled to El Fasher in Northern Darfur, before eventually reaching their destination in Libya.
Later in her story she recounted how one of their neighbors helped them get out because of a relationship he had with the RSF. “In addition, RSF were knocking on doors and if they found women they raped them. One of our neighbors died after she was raped.
Some women were kidnapped, and some were raped. They raped women in front of their male family members. They even raped the girls and older women in our neighborhood.
They raped women in groups of not less than six or seven men. They came in batches with their cars to rape women. Sometimes they killed the males when they tried to defend their women,” she wrote.
In “‘Khartoum Is Not Safe For Women:’ Sexual Violence against Women and Girls in Sudan’s Capital,” a report published by Human Rights Watch, a 20-year-old woman living in an area controlled by the RSF, was interviewed in 2024.
“I have slept with a knife under my pillow for months in fear from the raids that lead to rape by RSF,” she said. “Since this war started, it is not safe anymore to be a woman living in Khartoum under RSF.”
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