Amid the ongoing civil war in Sudan that began in April 2023, women are bearing the brunt of the human catastrophe. Field reports from El Fasher in Darfur, which fell after a 500-day siege, paint a horrifying picture of the endless suffering of women.
In this terrible war, they have endured everything from hunger and bombardment to displacement and organized sexual violence. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has emphasized that in Sudan, simply being a woman is a sufficient pretext for hunger, violence, and death.
Mounting and documented evidence indicates that sexual rape is becoming an intentional and systematic tactic of war. This violence is not merely an accidental collateral damage but a calculated tool to destroy dignity, break the spirit of communities, and carry out ethnic cleansing.
The involved armed groups, especially the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia, are using rape in an organized manner to punish communities supporting rivals, create widespread terror, and force families to flee their lands. Field reports from Darfur indicate raids on homes and displacement camps with the specific aim of gang-raping women and girls. Victims are often attacked in front of their family members to maximize the sense of fragility and fear.
Many women, after being raped, also face stigma and rejection from their own communities, further deepening their psychological wounds. A 21-year-old woman named Anaat says: “One of the soldiers raped her in front of her nephew while two other soldiers stood guard. I begged them to leave me alone. I appealed to what is sacred and I was crying. But their hearts showed me no mercy. They raped me.”
Cases of sexual violence in the region largely go unregistered, but gathered data shows that between July 2023 and May 2024, thousands of rape cases have been reported, with victims ranging from 8 to 65 years old. Tigist, who is 18 years old, recounts that while returning home from work at night, three soldiers ambushed her on the street and gang-raped her on the sidewalk. She remembers: “My family found me unconscious by the roadside.
They took me to the clinic, and I was hospitalized for five days.” Tigist says she hasn’t been able to leave the house since the attack, because fear of men and the outside world has completely paralyzed her. “Fear prevents me from going to work… When I see a soldier or any other man, I panic and hide. It’s hateful that I was born a woman. If I were a man, maybe they would have beaten me and left, but they wouldn’t have destroyed my life like this.”
In treatment centers, from July 18, 2023, to May of this year, 2,697 reports of rape have been registered. 45% of these cases involved children under 18 years old. Just over half of the victims tested positive for sexually transmitted diseases, and many also became pregnant or suffered severe psychological trauma. However, many victims of sexual violence never report the crime or seek treatment, terrified of social stigma or of discovering they have contracted an STD or become pregnant.
Furthermore, women in Sudan no longer have any safe space to seek refuge or access primary psychological care, to the extent that their bodies have become crime scenes. Even basic sanitary needs have become a luxury item; in North Darfur, a pack of sanitary pads costs about $27, while the monthly cash assistance for a family of six is less than $150.
In this crisis, women and girls are the last and least to eat. Mothers often skip their own meals so their children can survive, and teenage girls typically receive the smallest share, severely undermining their long-term health and nutrition. In areas like Darfur, women are forced to scavenge for hours in garbage dumps to find food.
This disaster is unfolding against a historical backdrop of deep gender inequality in Sudan. Although Sudanese women played a leading role in recent revolutions, restrictive laws and social structures have always been a stubborn obstacle to achieving full equality.
The disaster in Sudan is a serious test for the global conscience. The UN Human Rights Council’s action to dispatch an investigation team, although necessary, is a belated move. The international community cannot, in the shadow of other geopolitical conflicts, stand by and watch the destruction of a generation of Sudanese women. Every day of delayed action means more lives lost and the deepening of wounds for a nation.
faeze Aghamohammady