KHARTOUM MARCH 2025: Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters and allied militias have raped scores of women and girls, including in the context of sexual slavery, in Sudan’s South Kordofan state since September 2023, Human Rights Watch said in December 2024.
These acts of sexual violence, which constitute war crimes and may constitute crimes against humanity, underscore the urgent need for meaningful international action to protect civilians and deliver justice.
A 35-year-old ethnic Nuba woman said six RSF fighters in beige uniforms stormed into her family compound, with one man saying, “You Nuba, today is your day.” The men then gang raped her. “My husband and my son tried to defend me, so one of the RSF fighters shot and killed them. Then they kept raping me, all six of them,” she said.
“Survivors described being gang raped, in front of their families or over prolonged periods of time, including while being held as sex slaves by RSF fighters,” said Belkis Wille, associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch.
In October 2024, Human Rights Watch interviewed 93 people in person and remotely, including 70 in informal settlements for displaced people in the Nuba Mountains region of South Kordofan state, currently under the control of the armed group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North (SPLM-N). The RSF, which is fighting against the national military, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), for control of the country, has also engaged in hostilities with the SPLM-N. Researchers interviewed seven survivors of rape, including one who said she was held with 50 other women and raped repeatedly over three months. Human Rights Watch also interviewed 12 people who said their relatives or friends were raped, in many cases in incidents they personally witnessed.
In total, the survivors and other witnesses provided information about 79 girls and women, between the ages of 7 and 50, who reported being raped. Most incidents documented were gang rapes that occurred since December 31, 2023, in and around the town of Habila, and at an RSF base, also involving victims from the town of Fayu, approximately 17 kilometers south of Habila, in South Kordofan.
Survivors and witnesses said the attackers were all uniformed RSF members, or allied militia members, and some survivors said they knew some of the men by name from the community. In the cases documented by Human Rights Watch, RSF fighters raped 14 women and girls in their own homes or neighbors’ homes, often in front of family members. In five such cases, the attackers raped the women and girls after killing or threatening family members.
An 18-year-old woman said that in February, RSF fighters took her and 17 other women and girls from Fayu to a military base where they were detained with a group of 33 women and girls already there. Under the total control of their RSF captors, the women and girls were held in conditions of enslavement, at times even chained together. On a daily basis for three months, the fighters raped and beat the women and girls, including the 18-year-old survivor, crimes that also constitute sexual slavery.
On November 25, Human Rights Watch shared a summary of its findings and related questions with Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the RSF commander, but has not received a response.
“This research highlights what HRW have been hearing for some time now about the magnitude of sexual violence in Sudan, with the RSF coming into homes and raping women and girls time and again,” Wille said. “Yet so far, Sudanese victims have barely had access to services, let alone redress or meaningful efforts to stop these horrific crimes.”
English subtitles are available for the video.
Source: HRW
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