In Sudan, the weapons of war are rape and torture

Editor’s note: This story contains descriptions of sexual violence and may not be suitable for all readers.

Duria, 37, was traveling on public transportation in Khartoum, Sudan, in January 2024 when a Rapid Support Forces (RSF) soldier stopped the vehicle. After confirming Duria had no passport, he accused her of being a military spy. He then forced her to go to a remote location resembling a farm, where he raped her.

“I went home, took a shower, acted like nothing happened,” said Duria. WORLD is using a pseudonym because of concerns for Duria’s safety.

“He knew I couldn’t do anything to him, and I was really scared, and he did what he did.”

“They are really not like normal people,” she told me.

The RSF is a paramilitary group that the United States accused of genocide in January. It’s led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the former deputy of the country’s armed forces chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

After the 2019 ouster of Sudan’s longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir, the two generals jointly led a coup in 2021. But disagreements over how to integrate the RSF into the military and who would wield control spiraled into violence, sparking a civil war that began in April 2023. Earlier this month, RSF’s Dagalo declared the launch of a rival government.

As the war enters its third year, it has ballooned into the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with no signs of slowing. Displacement, starvation, and widespread sexual violence plague local residents.

Since the outbreak of the conflict, 16.1 million Sudanese people have been displaced, with 10.6 million internally displaced and 4.1 million forced to seek asylum outside the country.

More than 18,000 of the displaced have sought asylum in the United Kingdom since 2020. One woman, Nada Elyas, previously worked as a journalist in Sudan. I sat in her home after the First Dignity Forum—organized by Sudanese grassroots organizations across the U.K. and Ireland—and enjoyed traditional Sudanese rolls and hibiscus tea.

The stories she told are examples of how militants use violence and rape against civilans. Elyas told how RSF soldiers went into a woman’s house demanding gold. When the woman told them she had already given her gold to another RSF group, they searched the house. The woman started screaming, so they killed her daughter in front of her.

RSF soldiers also occupied a house owned by another woman, Elyas said. The fighters held her and her three daughters under house arrest, raping the daughters each day and forcing the woman to cook for them.

A March report by the United Nations recorded more than 200 rape cases against children—including four 1-year-olds—since the start of 2024. The report said the accusations extend to both the RSF and the Sudanese army. In a separate report, the UN’s human rights office also noted that both sides have held civilians, including children, without charge and subjected them to frequent torture and discrimination.

Sulaima Ishaq Sharif, director of Combating Violence Against Women—a unit with the country’s Ministry of Social Development—stressed that while exploitation can happen everywhere, RSF soldiers have committed incomparably more crimes than the Sudanese military.

“The story about fighting between two generals is not true,” Sharif emphasized. “What [the RSF] have been targeting are civilians, infrastructure, houses—and part of it is using sexual violence.”

Joseph Siegle, director of research at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, said RSF members initially staged ethnically based attacks against members of the Masalit communities in Darfur before commiting more violence, more recently at the Zamzam camp for displaced persons.

“Atrocities have also included looting, rapes, and murders of civilians in other parts of the country such as Khartoum and Gezira State where the RSF has launched attacks,” he said.

Siegle noted that the army has also faced accusations of mass executions and other attacks on civilians, particularly in areas under RSF control.

Social stigma exacerbates the trauma of sexual violence. Most Sudanese women, afraid of being shamed and ostracized, remain silent. “They will not understand,” Duria said. “It’s not like Europe. Even if I tell my mom, she will say it’s my fault, because you went out and took the transport. … I really hope I can delete this from my memory.”

Many Sudanese believe that home can offer protection, noted Sharif. But RSF soldiers invade women’s homes, rape them in front of witnesses, and then brag on social media. They mark victims on their faces and hips to humiliate not only the women, but also the men who should have protected them. As Sharif explained, sexual violence is a weapon of war: “It’s about taking away manhood.”

Siegle said the conflict will likely drag out, with sponsors like the United Arab Emirates accused of supplying weapons to Sudanese rebel groups. The United States has also accused Russia of supporting both sides.

“The more likely scenario for an end to the conflict would be a negotiated settlement,” Siegle said. “This would entail regional backers of the conflict recognizing that they can better advance their political and economic interests under a stable and unified Sudan.”

Siegle noted that accountability for the ongoing atrocities might have to come from indictments by the International Criminal Court and sanctions against the military leaders by bilateral actors.

“Even before the coup, the military factions were resistant to calls for accountability due to their attacks on unarmed protestors during the pro-democracy movement of 2019,” he said.