UN says widespread sexual violence in Sudan is 'deeply alarming' amid bloody civil war

The 18-month civil war in Africa's third-largest country has left tens of thousands killed and millions of others displaced amid catastrophic famine and raging diseases. The dire crisis in Sudan is currently one of the worst in the world, but as global attention remains focused on the conflict in the Middle East, the African nation is seemingly being forgotten.

Adding to the bleak picture is a new 80-page report from the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan, which sheds light on how militias are preying on women. The fact-finding mission accuses both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the army’s former paramilitary allies, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), of rampant sexual violence. 

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The U.N. report documents the pervasive sexual violence and human rights abuses in Sudan, affecting civilians from ages 8 to 75. It details how Sudanese women and girls are being abducted for sexual slavery, accusing the RSF of being behind the "large majority" of cases. Furthermore, the mission reported credible accounts of men and boys being subject to rape and gang-rape. 

The situation has been exacerbated by a severe lack of medical services. The conflict has left most hospitals and clinics destroyed, depriving victims of much-needed medical treatment.

"The sheer scale of sexual violence we have documented in Sudan is staggering," mission Chair Mohamed Chande Othman said in a statement. Sudan's state of affairs "is deeply alarming and needs urgent address," he added.

Human rights groups have also sounded the alarm over the abuses women are suffering. Advocates report that sexual atrocities are prompting women to take their lives – either in response to the brutalities they have endured, or to escape it entirely. 

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Sudan’s brutal war erupted in April 2023 after a simmering power struggle between the SAF and the powerful paramilitary RSF group exploded into an all-out war. Most recently, intense clashes in east-central Sudan led to the slaying of more than 100 people. The U.N. said that the RSF shot civilians, sexually abused women and girls, and looted properties. 

"The people of Sudan are living through a nightmare of violence," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council earlier this week. "The suffering is growing by the day, with almost 25 million people now in need of humanitarian assistance," he emphasized.

As Sudan nears collapse, foreign aid remains insubstantial. Only about half of the U.N.’s $2.7 billion humanitarian appeal for the Northeast African country has been funded. But even as the country faces the world’s worst famine in forty years, it remains forgotten, overshadowed by the Middle East conflict.