Introduction and context
Sudan is experiencing one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises, the result of more than two years of brutal conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti). The fighting erupted in April 2023 in the capital, Khartoum, after months of mounting tension over transitional government negotiations and security sector reforms. Since then, violence has rapidly spread to other regions, including Darfur, North and South Kordofan, and Gezira, engulfing much of the country in conflict.
This war has devastated Sudan’s population and infrastructure. Over 30 million people (more than half the population) now require urgent humanitarian assistance, including 16 million children and 15 million women and girls (OCHA, 2025). The scale of displacement is unprecedented: more than 12 million people have been forced from their homes, with over 8 million internally displaced and more than 3 million fleeing to neighboring countries, marking Sudan as the world’s largest displacement crisis in recent history (OCHA, 2025). Acute food insecurity has soared, with famine conditions confirmed in regions such as North Darfur, and millions more are at risk in conflict-affected areas, including Darfur, Kordofan, and Khartoum. The collapse of basic services has left millions without access to healthcare, education, or protection, and gender-based violence has reached alarming levels, disproportionately affecting women and children.
The conflict has been fueled by a steady influx of weapons from international suppliers, despite a longstanding UN Security Council arms embargo on Darfur. Both the SAF and RSF have launched frequent and indiscriminate attacks in densely populated civilian areas, often using explosive weapons with wide area effects. These attacks have resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths and injuries, and deliberate targeting of civilians has been widely reported, especially in Darfur, Gezira, and Khartoum states. According to the UN, more than 27,000 people were killed nationwide between April 2023 and December 2024, and the true toll is likely higher.
Within this catastrophic context, women and girls face escalating, systematic risks of gang rape, sexual slavery, trafficking, and forced marriage, particularly in Al Gezira, Sinnar, Darfur, and South Kordofan. Widespread and systematic violations, including conflict-related sexual violence, abductions, and killings, have been documented, with many attributed to the RSF, a paramilitary force with roots in the notorious Janjaweed militia. In some attacks, entire families have been torn apart, with women raped in front of relatives or abducted for prolonged sexual violence. The mental health crisis among survivors is deepening, with reports of women taking their own lives following traumatic assaults and many openly contemplating suicide as a means of escape. The collapse of health systems and protection mechanisms has left survivors without access to medical or psychological care, and maternal mortality has risen sharply as emergency reproductive care remains virtually non-existent. Enforced disappearances and abductions for sexual slavery have surged, especially in RSF-controlled areas, while attacks on women human rights defenders and frontline workers further erode remaining protections. The horrific scale and systematic nature of violence against women and girls in Sudan stands as a stark testament to the erosion of protection during conflict and the urgent need for international action. The following sections examine the nature and scale of these systematic attacks to reveal how gender-based violence has become a weapon of war and a tool of terror against Sudanese women.
Sexual violence’s function in the context of the conflict in Sudan
From the earliest days of the conflict in April 2023, reports of sexual violence against women and girls began to surface, particularly in Khartoum and Darfur. Investigations by Amnesty International and other organizations have established that both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have perpetrated conflict-related sexual violence, including rape, as a recurring feature of the war (Amnesty International, 2023; Sudan FFM, 2024; HRW, 2024).
Notably, sexual violence in this context serves multiple strategic purposes. It is used to humiliate, punish, and control women, to inflict terror and fear within communities, and to force displacement on a massive scale. The targeting of women is also a response to their influential role in Sudan’s revolution, with the ultimate aim being to demoralize and morally destroy women as a means of undermining broader resistance (Amnesty International interview, 2024). Survivors have described being raped or gang raped in front of family members, intensifying the sense of humiliation and trauma and often compelling them to flee their homes after such assaults (Amnesty International, 2023). Public assaults, such as the sexual harassment of women and girls on buses, further illustrate the intent to degrade and intimidate women collectively. One survivor recounted, “They sexually harassed all the women in the bus, including me and my daughter. They aggressively touched our breasts and thighs in a humiliating manner.” Another described being tied up and raped by multiple RSF soldiers in front of her daughter, stating, “It was so humiliating.” (Amnesty International, 2025).
Patterns and tactics of the systematic attack against women
As aforementioned, the current conflict in Sudan has produced a distinct and deeply troubling pattern of systematic attacks against women and girls, marked by a dramatic escalation in gender-based violence (GBV) across the country. Even before the war, Sudanese women and girls faced a spectrum of GBV, including domestic violence, forced and child marriage, abduction, and female genital mutilation, perpetrated in homes, communities, and by armed groups. However, since the outbreak of hostilities, there has been a staggering 288 percent increase in survivors seeking GBV assistance, with incidents of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) reported in every region experiencing intense fighting (UN Women, 2024). CRSV is now perpetrated by all parties to the conflict and is sustained by the collapse of law and order, mass displacement, and a pervasive culture of impunity. The patterns are both widespread and systematic: sexual violence is frequently used during invasions of urban centers and cities, with large-scale rapes occurring inside homes amid looting, killings, and abductions. Gang rape involving multiple offenders, sometimes attacking one victim, sometimes several women and girls in a single raid, has become a hallmark of these assaults, often carried out in the presence of family members, who themselves may be shot, raped, or killed when trying to intervene. Perpetrators routinely use guns, knives, and other weapons to intimidate, torture, and sometimes murder their victims.
Women and girls are also highly vulnerable while fleeing conflict-affected areas, facing rape on roads, at checkpoints, and even after being forced off buses at gunpoint. Displaced women and girls in shelters, IDP camps, or at border crossings are at heightened risk of abduction, leading to ongoing sexual violence in captivity, forced domestic labor, and conditions tantamount to enslavement. Opportunistic rape has surged amidst lawlessness, economic desperation, and the breakdown of basic services, with attacks occurring even during daily activities such as going to the market or collecting water. Trafficking for sexual exploitation, including reports of women and girls being sold at slave markets, has also increased. Furthermore, those who flee Sudan continue to face GBV risks in refugee settings, including rape, forced marriage, as well as increased intimate partner violence. Despite international attention, the absence of effective monitoring, reporting, and accountability mechanisms allows these patterns of violence to persist unchecked, undermining international commitments to prevent and respond to CRSV and leaving Sudanese women and girls dangerously exposed to ongoing, systematic abuse.
Impact of GBV on women and girls
The widespread GBV unleashed by the conflict in Sudan has had an immediate and devastating impact on women and girls, reverberating through their families and communities. This violence has severely affected survivors’ physical and mental health, undermined their bodily autonomy, and eroded their social and economic well-being, with consequences that will be felt for years to come. Many victims have lost their lives, some killed while resisting rape or trying to defend others, while others have died from injuries sustained during sexual assaults. The true death toll is likely underreported due to insecurity and the lack of effective monitoring.
Survivors often suffer life-altering health consequences, including physical injuries, sexually transmitted infections such as HIV and hepatitis, and serious reproductive health complications like miscarriages or infertility. The brutality of these attacks, which can involve gunshot wounds, stabbing, broken bones, and chronic pain, is further exacerbated for women and girls who have already undergone female genital mutilation. The psychological toll is equally severe: survivors frequently experience post-traumatic stress, anxiety, insomnia, depression, and flashbacks. Reports indicate a worrying rise in suicidal thoughts and attempts, especially among young women facing the stigma and shame associated with sexual violence or resulting pregnancies (UN Women, 2024). Family members who witness these assaults are also deeply affected, often exhibiting signs of trauma themselves.
Bodily autonomy is further compromised for survivors who become pregnant as a result of rape. With limited or no access to safe abortion, many are forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term or risk unsafe procedures that endanger their health. Children born of rape face heightened risks of infanticide, abandonment, discrimination, and long-term trauma, while health centers are seeing more cases of unwanted pregnancies and infants left at orphanages. In Sudan’s society, survivors of sexual violence often bear the brunt of social stigma and blame, rather than the perpetrators. Many women and girls face abandonment by their families or partners, leading to isolation and a profound sense of shame. This social ostracization compounds their mental health struggles and undermines their sense of self-worth and belonging. The stigma is even more pronounced for those who become pregnant as a result of rape, with both mothers and their children facing long-term discrimination and trauma.
Economically, survivors who are rejected by their families lose vital sources of support and are left to fend for themselves. The widespread displacement and breakdown of family and community structures have stripped women of their traditional safety nets, further exposing them to insecurity and poverty. Heightened risks of sexual assault in public spaces and during economic activities also restrict women’s movement and access to livelihoods, eroding any economic independence they may have had.
International crimes against women
The conflict that erupted in Sudan constitutes a non-international armed conflict under international humanitarian law, obliging both parties to comply with the Geneva Conventions, Additional Protocol II, and customary international humanitarian law. Sudan is also bound by several international and regional human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention Against Torture (CAT), and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR). The sexual violence perpetrated by the RSF amounts to grave violations of international human rights law and constitutes war crimes and potentially crimes against humanity. These acts violate fundamental rights to equality, non-discrimination, physical integrity, and the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment (ICCPR; CEDAW). Under international law, rape is defined as sexual penetration or “invasion,” however slight, when committed by force, threat, coercion, or by taking advantage of a coercive environment, or against a person incapable of giving genuine consent, and is also recognized as a form of torture (ICC, 2011; UN Special Rapporteur, 1986). States are required to prevent and respond to sexual violence in conflict, protect those at risk, prosecute perpetrators, and provide comprehensive services and reparations for survivors.
Rape and other forms of sexual violence are considered war crimes when they occur in the context of and are associated with an armed conflict, and the perpetrators are aware of the conflict’s existence. Such acts may also amount to crimes against humanity if committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population, with knowledge of the attack. An attack qualifies as such when it involves multiple acts whose primary target is civilians, and is conducted under, or in furtherance of, a state or organizational policy, which can be inferred from factors like planning, recurrent violence, use of resources, involvement of state or organizational forces, or statements condoning the crimes (ICC, Katanga case, 2023 and Bemba case, 2018). The attack must be either widespread (large in scale and number of victims) or systematic, reflecting the organized nature and improbability of random occurrence (ICC, Ongwen case, 2005).
RSF and allied militias have repeatedly carried out acts of rape across Sudan since April 2023 in a manner that is both widespread and systematic, particularly targeting non-Arab communities such as the Masalit in West Darfur and along civilian flight routes (OHCHR, 2024). The UN FFM found reasonable grounds to believe that these attacks were conducted in furtherance of an organizational policy, and that the RSF and its allies committed crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, enslavement, rape, sexual slavery, and acts of a sexual nature of comparable gravity (OHCHR, 2024). These crimes are characterized by their recurrent and coordinated nature, with RSF soldiers often acting together, in uniform, and using RSF vehicles, while perpetrators face little to no accountability. The evidence collected demonstrates that these acts of sexual violence are not isolated, but rather form a central component of the broader campaign of atrocities against civilians, and are possibly part of a deliberate policy to terrorize, humiliate, and displace women and entire communities during the ongoing conflict in Sudan.
Conclusion
The conflict in Sudan has laid bare a devastating pattern of systematic violence against women and girls, with sexual violence used as a weapon of war to terrorize, humiliate, and destabilize entire communities. Despite decades of international attention and legal obligations under humanitarian and human rights law, impunity for these grave crimes remains entrenched.
The RSF and allied militias, in particular, have orchestrated campaigns of rape, sexual slavery, and gender-based violence in Darfur and other regions, echoing the atrocities committed during previous conflicts and underscoring the cyclical nature of impunity in Sudan. Survivors continue to face immense barriers to justice and support, while perpetrators operate with near-total impunity. Yet, the international community’s response has too often been marked by delay and a lack of decisive action. The failure to execute ICC arrest warrants and to hold perpetrators accountable has allowed cycles of violence and abuse to persist, with devastating consequences for Sudanese women and girls. As the appalling crisis continues to unfold, governments and international bodies must commit to closing the accountability gap by supporting ICC investigations, enforcing arrest warrants, and ensuring that survivors receive justice and reparations. Without genuine accountability, there can be no end to the violence, no deterrence for future crimes, and no hope for lasting peace and dignity for Sudan’s women and girls. The international community must act now to ensure that Sudan does not remain a symbol of forgotten atrocities, but instead becomes a testament to the power of justice and the resilience of those who demand and deserve it.
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