The war in Sudan began on April 15, 2023, with the paramilitary group RSF fighting for power against the country's army. This conflict has been called the world's largest humanitarian disaster, creating conditions where sexual violence against women and girls is being used systematically as a weapon in the war. Sexual violence continues far from the front line in the wake of the war, with everyday tasks like gathering firewood or getting food entailing risks of being subjected to assault.
The testimonies about rapes that occurred under gun or knife threats, in front of children, carried out by multiple perpetrators, and in connection with kidnapping, are shockingly many and brutal. In North Darfur, 95 percent of survivors stated that the perpetrators were armed, according to major media reports. Nearly 20 percent of survivors in South Darfur were children under 18 years old, according to the same sources.
Doctors Without Borders has emphasized that the number of rape cases is probably only the tip of the iceberg, though the total number of sexual violence cases since the war began beyond the 3,396 reported remains unknown. Sexual violence is not an unavoidable consequence of war; it is a crime, according to major media reports. Yet impunity in Sudan is almost total today, with efforts to prevent the assaults almost non-existent and support for survivors far from sufficient.
The international community has failed to protect civilians and to stop the war, according to major media reports. The greatest responsibility today lies with small local grassroots organizations that, in the midst of ongoing war, struggle to provide help and care to survivors of sexual violence. Sweden has long been a strong voice for human rights and international humanitarian law and was driving in having sexual violence in conflict now counted as a war crime, according to major media reports.
Sudan, like many other African countries, has been hit hard by cuts in aid, especially since American USAID was shut down. What specific actions are being taken by the UN or other international bodies to address the sexual violence in Darfur remains unclear, as does the current status of peace negotiations or efforts to end the war in Sudan. What specific diplomatic or financial measures Sweden or the EU are planning to implement in response to the sexual violence in Sudan remains unknown.
What evidence or investigations support the attribution of the sexual violence specifically to the RSF, and whether the RSF has responded to these allegations, also remains unclear.