Women in war-ravaged Sudan are facing harrowing conditions as they are coerced into sexual acts with soldiers in exchange for essential food supplies to feed their families. Dozens of women who escaped from the city of Omdurman have shared distressing accounts of their plight.
These women described how sexual exploitation has become a necessary condition for their survival in a region devastated by conflict and scarcity. “Both of my parents are too old and sick, and I never let my daughter go out to look for food. I went to the soldiers, and that was the only way to get food – they were everywhere in the factories area,” one woman was quoted as saying by British newspaper The Guardian.
The sexual assaults reportedly began shortly after civil war erupted in Sudan on April 15, 2023, pitting the national army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The conflict has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, with estimates as high as 150,000, and has created the world’s worst displacement crisis, leaving over 11 million people uprooted and pushing the country to the brink of famine.
#Sudan has the largest internally displaced population globally!Over 11M people, including 7.8 million displaced since mid-April 2023.
This means one in every five people in Sudan is displaced. pic.twitter.com/RL32eYK9BJ
— UN OCHA Sudan (@UNOCHA_Sudan) July 21, 2024
Women have shared harrowing accounts of systematic abuse by RSF fighters in areas under their control. The soldiers demanded sex not only for food but also for access to abandoned houses where women could loot items to sell in local markets. One woman revealed that after having sex with soldiers, she was allowed to take food and household items from deserted homes.
“What I went through is indescribable; I would not wish it on an enemy. I only did it because I wanted to feed my children,” she said. Residents of Omdurman reported seeing women queuing outside abandoned houses, where soldiers would choose those they found appealing. One resident noted, “I sometimes hear screaming, but what can you do? Nothing.”
Earlier this month, Radhouane Nouicer, the Designated Expert on Sudan of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, sounded the alarm about the dire human rights situation in the country. “Since the start of this senseless conflict last year, the civilian population in Sudan has been exposed to unprecedented levels of violence and suffering. As always in times of war, it is civilians who are bearing the brunt. The scale and magnitude of human rights violations and abuses committed in Sudan are appalling,” said Nouicer in a statement at the end of a five-day visit to Port Sudan.
