Sudan: Sexual violence rampant in capital

• Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have committed widespread sexual violence in areas of Khartoum under their control, which constitutes War crimes and Crimes against humanity.
• Both the Rapid Security Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have attacked medics, local responders and medical facilities, which is a war crime.
• The African Union and the United Nations should urgently deploy civil protection forces, and countries should take steps to hold perpetrators of sexual violence accountable.

(Nairobi)– SudanSince the start of the current conflict, warring parties, particularly the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have committed mass rape, including gang rape, and forced marriages of women and girls in the country’s capital, Khartoum, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 89-page report ‘Khartoum is not safe for women’: Sexual violence against women and girls in Sudan’s capital The study documented widespread sexual violence and forced and child marriage during the conflict in Khartoum and its sister cities. Service providers treating and supporting victims also heard reports from women and girls that they were held by the RSF in conditions that could amount to sexual slavery. The study also highlighted the devastating physical and mental health consequences suffered by survivors, as well as the devastating impact of attacks on health care by warring parties and deliberate obstruction of aid by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).

“The Rapid Support Forces raped, gang-raped and forced into marriage countless women and girls in residential areas of Sudan’s capital,” he said. Letitia BuddDeputy Director of the Africa Division at Human Rights Watch. “The armed group is terrorizing women and girls, and both sides are blocking their access to aid and support services, exacerbating the harm they face and leaving them feeling like they have nowhere to go to be safe.”

It is critical to hear directly from survivors of sexual violence themselves, and their experiences, perspectives, and demands should be heard in a safe and dignified manner. Given the restrictions on access to Khartoum, security challenges, inadequate services for survivors, and logistical barriers, Human Rights Watch interviewed, with few exceptions, 42 health care providers, social workers, counselors, lawyers, and local responders for this report who established an emergency response room in Khartoum between September 2023 and February 2024.

Eighteen of the health facilities provide direct medical care or psychosocial support to survivors of sexual violence, or deal with individual incidents. They said they cared for a total of 262 survivors of sexual violence aged between 9 and 60 between the outbreak of the conflict in April 2023 and February 2024.

In early 2024, a 20-year-old woman living in an RSF-controlled area told Human Rights Watch: “For months, I slept with a knife under my pillow, fearing that the RSF would suddenly attack and rape me. Since the beginning of this war, it is no longer safe for women to live in RSF-controlled Khartoum.”

Human Rights Watch found that the physical, emotional, social, and psychological trauma to the victims was immense. Health care workers encountered victims seeking help for severe physical injuries they had sustained during rape and gang rape. At least four women died as a result. Many victims who sought to terminate pregnancies resulting from rape faced significant barriers to abortion care. Survivors described or exhibited symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, including suicidal thoughts, anxiety, fear, and insomnia.

“I spoke to a rape survivor who had just found out she was three months pregnant,” said one psychiatrist. “She was clearly traumatized and shaking, terrified of how her family would react. She told me, ‘If they find out about my condition, they’re going to kill me.'”

Survivors told health care workers that they were raped by as many as five RSF fighters. The RSF also abducted women and girls and held them in houses and other facilities they occupied in Khartoum, Bahri, and Omdurman, subjecting them to sexual violence and other abuses. RSF members sometimes sexually assaulted women and girls in front of their families. The RSF also forced women and girls into marriage.

Cases committed by members of the Sudanese Armed Forces were fewer, but the number of cases increased after the Sudanese Armed Forces took control of Omdurman in early 2024. Men and boys were also raped, including in detention.

Human Rights Watch found that both sides in the conflict prevented survivors from accessing critical and comprehensive emergency medical care.

The Sudanese Armed Forces have deliberately restricted access to humanitarian goods, including medical supplies, and aid workers, and have imposed a de facto blockade on medical supplies entering RSF-controlled areas of Khartoum since October 2023. The RSF has looted medical supplies and occupied medical facilities.

Local aid workers have been forced to take the lead in responding to sexual violence. They have paid a heavy price as both sides intimidate, arbitrarily detain and attack doctors, nurses and emergency volunteers, including for supporting rape survivors. In several cases, they say, rapid response team members have committed sexual violence against service providers.

Conflict-related sexual violence is a war crime. Like forced marriage, when sexual violence is part of a widespread or systematic attack against civilians, as has happened in Sudan, it may also be investigated and prosecuted as crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said.

Deliberate obstruction or arbitrary restriction of humanitarian assistance also constitutes a violation of International humanitarian lawArrests, looting and attacks on civilians, including medical and emergency workers, are war crimes. Intentional attacks against humanitarian assistance operations, including personnel, sites and vehicles, are also prosecutable as separate war crimes under the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Human Rights Watch found that neither side has taken effective steps to prevent its forces from committing rape or attacks on health facilities, or to independently and transparently investigate crimes committed by its forces. On July 23, an RSF spokesman wrote to Human Rights Watch denying that the RSF had occupied any hospitals or health centers in the three cities of Khartoum state. He did not provide evidence that the RSF had effectively investigated allegations of sexual violence by its forces, let alone held them accountable.

The African Union and the United Nations should immediately work together to deploy a new mission to protect Sudanese civilians, including by preventing sexual and gender-based violence, supporting comprehensive services for all survivors, and documenting conflict-related sexual violence. The mission should have the mandate and capacity to monitor obstructions to humanitarian assistance and facilitate its access.

International donors need to urgently increase political and financial support for local responders. States should work together to impose targeted sanctions on commanders responsible for sexual violence and attacks on health-care workers and local responders. UN Member States, especially in the region, should continue to support international investigations into these crimes, including by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission to Sudan. The UN should prioritize ensuring that it rebuilds its system-wide capacity to respond to conflict-related sexual violence.

“Women, men and children at risk of abuse or rape in Khartoum and elsewhere should know that the world is willing to protect them and guarantee access to support services and justice,” Badr said. “The United Nations and the African Union need to mobilize that protection, and states should hold accountable those responsible for continued violence, attacks on local aid workers, medical facilities and obstruction of aid.”