Widespread rapes, sexual slavery and forced marriages under torture have been reported in Sudan's Gezira state, amid the ongoing depopulation campaign unleashed by the paramilitary RSF last month.
In war-torn Sudan's Gezira state, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is systematically using "sexual violence as a weapon of war", UN experts decried on Tuesday, November 5. The paramilitary group, at war with Sudan's army since April 2023, has launched a depopulation campaign in the country's agricultural heartland. In the region now struck by famine, the RSF has reportedly killed over 1,000 civilians in a wave of attacks on villages and towns in eastern Gezira.
"This large-scale campaign, predominantly targeting women and girls, has been found to include rape, sexual slavery, forced marriage, and human trafficking under conditions of extreme violence that would amount to torture," the UN experts said.
Reports have circulated on social media claiming instances of mass suicides by women who were raped or feared being raped as the RSF entered their villages. In one village alone, over 130 women are rumored to have committed suicide to escape sexual violence. With the besieged areas cut off from transport and communication, these reports remain unverified.
At least six cases of rape-induced suicides have been documented by the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA), which also confirmed the rapes of at least 25 minor girls aged 11 to 17. The fate of female nurses abducted from the hospital in the town of Rufaa remains unknown.
At a press conference held by SIHA on Monday, a human rights activist confirmed that at least 48 cases of rapes have been documented, although the real number of victims is likely to be well above 200, Radio Dabanga reported. Victims avoiding documentation under the pressure of social stigma associated with rape are in danger of not receiving treatment.
Even those seeking treatment have limited access to medical care due to the large-scale destruction of healthcare facilities.
According to a report published last month by the UN Human Rights Council, "at least 400 survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, almost exclusively women and girls, were registered by hospitals and/or service providers and referred to some form of support in the Sudan from the start of the conflict to July 2024." For the majority of the victims, however, support remains beyond reach.
Read: RSF is depopulating war-torn Sudan's breadbasket amid an unprecedented famine
