A United Nations Fact-Finding Mission reported Tuesday that Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias have committed extensive sexual violence against civilians. The report highlights what it describes as “staggering” levels of abuse, with victims aged from eight up to 75 years old.
According to the report, victims were targeted based on gender and perceived ethnicity, often suffering severe physical and psychological abuse. The violence included beatings, forced nudity, and threats of death, and has often taken place in front of family members. Perpetrators frequently subject civilians to racial slurs during attacks, particularly targeting non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur. The report cited cases of abductions and prolonged detentions of women and girls by RSF forces, describing these conditions as tantamount to sexual slavery.
The report was based on in-depth interviews with survivors, witnesses, and family members and cited numerous accounts of violence. The UN Mission asserts that the acts committed by the RSF and affiliated militias likely constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, specifically acts of torture, rape, sexual slavery, and ethnic persecution.
The Fact-Finding Mission also gathered evidence indicating abuses by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), though it found the majority of documented incidents were perpetrated by the RSF and its allied militias. Both warring factions are accused of recruiting child soldiers. While the RSF has publicly promised to investigate abuses, it has not responded to requests for comments on these findings.
Mona Rishmawi, a member of the Fact-Finding Mission, expressed concern over the international community’s limited response, stating:
The responsibility and shame for these heinous acts should be placed solely on the perpetrators. Unless the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court is expanded to cover all of Sudan, and an independent judicial mechanism is established, the perpetrators of these crimes will continue to rip through Sudan causing terror and havoc.
The RSF is a paramilitary group with roots in Sudan’s Janjaweed militias. Sudan is currently in a civil war pitting the SAF against the RSF and its allies. The conflict has escalated into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with millions of people displaced internally or as refugees in neighboring countries. Many medical facilities, particularly in conflict zones, have been destroyed or occupied. Victims of sexual violence are therefore often unable to access essential medical care. Sudan now ranks among the top four countries worldwide with the highest rates of global acute malnutrition.
In one case, a woman was held captive for over eight months by RSF forces, enduring repeated sexual violence that ultimately led to forced impregnation. In four similar incidents documented by the report, women were abducted from public spaces, beaten, raped, and later abandoned in the streets — some found unconscious. Witnesses reported that the attackers often wore RSF uniforms, or headscarves to conceal their identities.
