Sexual Violence as a Weapon: Rape, Gang Rape and Sexual Slavery Nationwide

Amnesty International, UNICEF and the UN document RSF sexual violence — rape, gang rape, sexual slavery and torture of women, girls, and in detention settings men and boys — across Khartoum, Gezira, and Darfur, used systematically as a weapon of humiliation, ethnic cleansing and control. UNICEF recorded 221 child rape cases since 2024, including four one-year-olds.

In Khartoum and its sister cities Bahri and Omdurman, RSF soldiers raped and gang-raped women and girls inside their homes or after abduction to houses the RSF occupied; victims included women medical workers forced to treat wounded RSF soldiers. Amnesty International documented two women held by the RSF in Khartoum in conditions of sexual slavery for several days, one for more than 30 days; two women who resisted rape were killed.

In November 2023, four uniformed RSF soldiers entered "Suhair's" home in Omdurman looking for her husband, a former SAF soldier. One threw aside her breastfeeding infant and assaulted her while demanding to know her husband's location; another cut her back with a blade. She was then raped in her bedroom while her baby cried outside -- the assault was interrupted only when nearby fighting broke out and the men fled.
— "Suhair," 35, mother of four, Omdurman

In Gezira state, Amnesty documented rape and gang rape of five women and girls in their homes, mostly in front of family members and often after robbery. In one case RSF soldiers shot and killed a woman after gang-raping her; in another, a woman bore a child from rape by an RSF soldier and her husband subsequently left her.

In Darfur, Amnesty documented rape, gang rape and sexual assault of women and girls, including pregnant and internally displaced women; in one case, RSF fighters carried out a mass rape of 20 women and girls in Um Shanabat village, North Darfur. This built on Amnesty's earlier 2023 findings of RSF and allied-militia sexual violence against women and girls across Darfur.

Beyond rape itself, RSF soldiers subjected women and girls to other torture and degrading treatment: beatings, cutting with sharp blades, and pouring hot or melting liquid on victims' bodies, inflicting severe injuries -- occurring against a backdrop of decades of impunity for such crimes in Sudan.

Survivors reported kidney pain, irregular periods, walking difficulties and psychological trauma including memory loss. None of the survivors interviewed had access to post-rape care or had reported cases to authorities, citing the collapse of health facilities -- about 80% of hospitals in the most conflict-affected areas are non-functional -- and fear of stigmatization and reprisal.

UNICEF and gender-based-violence service providers analyzed 221 child rape cases recorded since the start of 2024, including 16 children under age five and four one-year-olds, describing this as only a small fraction of the true total. About 66% of recorded cases were girls and 33% were boys, who face particular stigma in reporting. One adult survivor described hearing a girl being selected nightly from a room of captive women and girls and taken away to be raped.

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk detailed abductions from Zamzam IDP camp in April, with women, girls and boys raped or gang-raped there or while trying to escape. The number of people at risk of sexual and gender-based violence nationwide has more than tripled to 12.1 million in under two years.

Sources

  • Amnesty International -- Primary source: Khartoum, Gezira and Darfur sexual violence testimony including "Suhair's" account
  • Refugees International -- UNICEF child rape statistics, UN Human Rights Chief Turk quotes, national SGBV risk figures