Washington, DC — 2 June 2025
While all civilians suffer in conflict, women and girls face not only the general horrors of war—displacement, hunger, and loss—but also targeted forms of violence that exploit their vulnerability. Since April 2023, sexual violence against women and girls in Sudan has escalated into one of the most pervasive and devastating dimensions of the conflict.
Both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been implicated in widespread and systematic patterns of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), including rape, gang rape, forced marriage, abduction, and trafficking. These acts are not incidental. They are frequently deployed as deliberate tactics to terrorize communities, assert control, and fracture social cohesion. As such, they constitute serious violations of international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In Darfur, where patterns of ethnic violence are deeply entrenched, the RSF has been repeatedly accused of carrying out mass sexual violence, often with apparent ethnic targeting. Survivors, including children, have reported brutal assaults, in some cases carried out in front of family members. These accounts underscore the systematic and public nature of the violence, reinforcing its role as a weapon of war.
Humanitarian organizations have documented alarming levels of abuse. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported treating 659 survivors of sexual violence in South Darfur between January and March 2025 alone, with the majority of cases involving rape. Many attacks occurred in homes, during displacement, or while women and girls were attempting to secure food or livelihoods. The RSF’s seizure of displacement camps, including Zamzam, has further increased exposure to violence, with rising reports of rape, abduction, and disappearance.
In Khartoum, sexual violence has also been documented, with both the SAF and RSF implicated in acts including gang rape and forced marriage. Reports from United Nations bodies, humanitarian organizations, and independent investigations indicate that these abuses are widespread across multiple regions of the country.
Barriers to Reporting and Support
The scale of Sudan’s humanitarian crisis has intensified both the risk of sexual violence and the barriers to addressing it. More than 30 million people require humanitarian assistance, including 16 million children. Over 12 million people have been internally displaced, while millions more have fled across borders. Women and children make up the majority of those affected.
Displacement environments offer little protection. Camps and informal settlements are often overcrowded and insecure, with limited access to services or law enforcement. Girls are increasingly forced into early and forced marriages as families struggle to survive. At the same time, the collapse of governance and protection systems has created conditions in which abuse can occur with near-total impunity.
Healthcare infrastructure has also deteriorated significantly. Survivors of sexual violence face severe barriers to accessing medical and psychological care. Essential services—including post-rape treatment, emergency contraception, and antiretroviral medication—are often unavailable or inaccessible. The absence of care compounds both immediate trauma and long-term physical and psychological harm.
Economic collapse has further increased vulnerability. As livelihoods disappear, many women become primary providers under extreme conditions. Some are forced into exploitative labor or survival sex, while trafficking networks exploit displacement and instability, particularly along border regions.
Education has also been severely disrupted. Schools have been destroyed or rendered unsafe, leading to increased dropout rates among girls. This loss of educational access contributes to long-term cycles of vulnerability, poverty, and marginalization.
Stigma remains a powerful barrier. Survivors often face social ostracization, retaliation, and victim-blaming, which discourages reporting and access to support. In many cases, survivors are left isolated, without legal recourse or community protection.
Local Response and International Efforts
Despite these conditions, Sudanese women’s organizations are playing a critical role in responding to the crisis. Networks such as the Peace for Sudan Platform, supported by UN Women, bring together dozens of women-led organizations working to provide protection services, psychosocial support, and advocacy.
Many of these groups operate under extreme constraints, including insecurity, lack of funding, and political exclusion. Others continue their work from exile. Their efforts to document abuses, support survivors, and demand accountability are essential and require sustained international backing.
International organizations, including UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), are working to deliver emergency health services and support survivors. However, ongoing violence, attacks on healthcare facilities, and restrictions on humanitarian access continue to limit the reach and effectiveness of these interventions.
At the same time, Sudanese women remain largely excluded from formal peace processes and political negotiations. This exclusion undermines both the effectiveness and legitimacy of efforts to resolve the conflict and address its gendered impacts.
Accountability and the Need for Action
The scale and systematic nature of sexual violence in Sudan demand urgent and sustained international action. Accountability mechanisms must be strengthened to ensure that perpetrators are identified and prosecuted. Survivors must have access to comprehensive medical, psychological, and legal support.
The United Nations, the African Union, and member states must take concrete steps to enhance civilian protection, expand humanitarian access, and prioritize gender-responsive interventions. This includes supporting local organizations, increasing funding for survivor services, and integrating accountability into broader diplomatic and peacebuilding efforts.
Sexual violence in Sudan’s war is not a secondary consequence of conflict—it is central to how the conflict is being waged. Addressing it is not optional; it is essential to any meaningful effort toward justice, stability, and peace.
As the conflict continues, the lives and dignity of millions of women and girls remain at risk. The international community’s response will determine not only the trajectory of this crisis, but also the credibility of its commitment to protecting civilians in times of war.
Photo credit: Chad Edtech Solutions Sudanese Refugees by Global Partnership for Education – GPE. Licensed under CC BY NC ND 2.0
Local parent Nour Haroun Babakar speaks during an interview at Djabal refugee camp, Eastern Chad. Nour and her family fled Sudan during the war in Darfur, and the recent uptick in violence in the region means that families such as hers remain in a state of uncertainty for the near future.
Lara Kajs is the founder and executive director of The Genocide Report (TGR). She has conducted extensive fieldwork in conflict and displacement settings, including Yemen, Syria, and Afghanistan. Her work focuses on humanitarian crises, international law, and atrocity prevention.