Sudanese Women Gang-Raped For Three Days In Attacks By Arab Forces

Sudan, a country in Northeast Africa, is grappling with conflict between Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces. Amid the war, women and children are suffering the most. Since April of this year, armed forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan’s de facto head of state, have been fighting with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

According to the United Nations, sexual violence against women and girls are being used in conflict-ravaged Sudan as “a tool of war.” 

Reuters documented war crime against women in Sudan. Gender-based violence, including sexual violence, have been used by Arab forces to punish women and girls.

Humanitarian crisis in Sudan has affected the lives of women. Previously, the UN also published a report titled, “Sudan: Women and girls abducted, held ‘in slave-like conditions’ in Darfur,” to highlight the plight of forgotten women in Sudan. UN Human Rights Spokesperson Liz Throssell said women were repeatedly raped. 

Women raped for three days

A 24-year-old Sudanese woman was raped by armed men in front of her mother. They captured her on the doorstep of her home and then raped her for hours in an abandoned house.

The ethnic-African Masalit women revealed that they were sexually assaulted and raped at gunpoint by RSF paramilitary and Arab militia forces. 

The 24 year old was among 11 young Masalit women interviewed by Reuters. Many women were raped by RSF in El Geneina, capital of Sudan’s West Darfur region. Out of 11 women, 9 women were raped by multiple men. They also witnessed other women being raped.

A teenage woman was also abducted and raped by four men over three days. A 15-year-old girl was raped by five RSF fighters. Later on, they also raped her friend. The 15-year-old girl revealed that her parents were killed.

The RSF and allied Arab forces in El Geneina targeted Masalit women for sexual assault and rape. Armed men who attacked women wore either RSF military uniforms and turbans, which are commonly worn by Arab militiamen.

The women – all in their teens or twenties – were raped repeatedly. They used ethnic slurs for the Masalit women. 

Earlier this month, women revealed that they suffered in areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Darfur, a region of western Sudan. The women were abducted, chained, and held in slave-like conditions.