(Photo by The African Union Mission in Somalia via Nova News/CC0 1.0 DEED)
In the past two years, a brutal conflict has enveloped Sudan, creating “the largest displacement crisis in the world” and a famine that has left millions of children malnourished and starving. This crisis has gone largely forgotten among the many other conflicts and crises the media is covering, forcing victims to suffer in silence.
The crisis is multidimensional and horrific, and one important threat citizens face daily is an explosion in Conflict-related Sexual Violence (CRSV). The violence women —and men, to a lesser, but not insignificant extent —are facing is widespread and brutal. It affects people of all ages, with some victims recorded being as young as a year old.
A recent UNICEF report on Child Rape and Sexual Violence in Sudan has shone a light on the atrocities that have skyrocketed in number. According to the report, the CRSV is not merely an unhappy byproduct of the conflict; the warring parties are using it as a weapon of war to dominate, terrorize, and decimate communities.
Although conflicts make sexual violence more common, not all conflicts are rife with CRSV. In the context of Sudan, a devilish cocktail of internal and external factors is to blame for making sexual violence a daily, and almost inevitable, experience for Sudanese civilians.
Sexual Violence in Conflict: The Causes
Sexual Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) is a stigmatized and underreported issue worldwide. An estimated one in three women will experience sexual or physical violence in their lifetime. During conflict, this risk goes up significantly. There are two overarching causes for this heightened danger.
Firstly, in contexts of conflict, public security weakens, and legal mechanisms of maintaining accountability and justice diminish. It becomes more difficult for victims to demand retribution or punishment for the abuse they have experienced. Perpetrators can make use of this culture of impunity to get away with opportunistic rapes and violence because they know that they will face little to no consequences for their actions.
However, CRSV is not only a result of opportunism; it can also be a military strategy to serve various ends. First of all, women are often ‘given’ as payment in conflicts instead of monetary compensation. This is particularly common when there are financial constraints to properly rewarding militants for their service. At times, women are also sex trafficked or held for ransom as a means of generating income. For example, the United Nations estimates that the Islamic State earned an estimated $35 million to $45 million in 2014 by holding Yazidi women for ransom.
Further, belligerents are threatened with sexual violence or the rape of their family members or loved ones in exchange for information. Overall, sexual violence is used in a military context as a means to psychologically control and displace communities.
In situations where forced recruitment comes to play i.e., when militant groups force people to join their cause, they can use rape as a way of building social cohesion within the ranks. According to Harvard Professor Dara Kay Cohen, “rape serves as an act of camaraderie.”
Though it might seem otherwise, CRSV is not only perpetrated by armed forces. The chances of being targeted by civilians, peacekeepers, and intimate partners also go up during conflicts, likely due to the general atmosphere of disorder and violence that infiltrates all aspects of people’s lives, and the vulnerability people face when they have to move away from their social network.
Consequences of Sexual Torture
According to UN Security Council Resolution 1820, women are “targeted by the use of sexual violence, including as a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate, instill fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate civilian members of a community or ethnic group.” Sexual torture is so common in conflict zones that the UN is considering adding sexual violence to the definition of torture in order to strengthen legal protections under the Convention Against Torture.
Widespread sexual violence destroys social bonds in the communities it affects. The trauma it causes and the stigma it often places on victims demoralize and destroy communities. As a result, international law considers CRSV a crime against humanity and, in some cases, an act of genocide. This is particularly the case when groups use rape to control reproduction and alter the bloodlines of rival ethnic groups.
Pre-existing gender norms and archetypes worsen all factors involved in creating an atmosphere of sexual violence. In cultures where sex is stigmatized, rapes have a more profound effect of shame and dishonour, which the military utilizes strategically. Strict patriarchal gender norms also leave women and children feeling more economically and physically vulnerable, and men more entitled to sex, and therefore raise the risks of being targeted.
Civil War in Sudan
A civil war has ravaged Sudan since April 2023, when the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) entered a power struggle. Sudan has been experiencing political upheaval since the military ousted President Omar al-Bashir in 2019 after civilians protested his three-decade long rule. In 2021, General al-Burhan, of the SAF, and General Dagalo, of the RSF, overthrew the military-civilian government and agreed to share power through a council of generals. However, this tense relationship fell apart over disputes regarding the direction the country was going in and who would lead it.
What followed is a bloody war that has claimed at least 150.000 lives and displaced at least 12 million others and shows no signs of slowing down. Human Rights Watch accuses both parties of war crimes and crimes against humanity. They accuse SAF of indiscriminate violence and the bombing of civilians and hospitals. Although both parties are guilty of sexual violence, the RSF, however, is considered to be the main perpetrator of CRSV.
Although the UNICEF report reports cases of rape and sexual violence in all parts of the country, the amount of violence in the Darfur region is particularly staggering. Twenty years earlier, the previous president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, had mobilised Arab herders in the region to fight back against “black African insurgents in Darfur.” This group, initially called the Janjaweed but later renamed the RSF, was accused of attempted genocide against non-Arab ethnic groups.
In Darfur, members of the Masalit ethnic group are saying that the RSF is using sexual violence as a “weapon of revenge.” It has become a death sentence to be Masalit. Militants are targeting, kidnapping and gang-raping women and children, leaving them for dead in front of their family members. According to the UN, RSF militants are threatening to make women “have Arab babies,” raising fears of genocide once more.
Honour and Harm
The patriarchal culture that Sudan has is compounding the CRSV ordeal. Victims of rape are often rejected by their families and forced to flee. This is also what makes CRSV so common in Sudan as a means of intimidation. As one Sudanese woman stated, “insulting honour does more than taking money.” The shame that comes with rape can last a lifetime.
The taboo surrounding sexual violence makes receiving adequate sexual care very difficult. The lack of access to abortion clinics and the shame surrounding rape mean that many women who become pregnant are unable to get abortions. As a result, the number of young, single mothers has increased enormously. Moreover, without support from their families or communities, they are often forced to fend for themselves.
The RSF may also be using gang rape as a method of social cohesion. Local residents have said that they are forcibly recruiting young men in the Darfur region. In addition, the RSF has collaborated with other Arab militias from the Sahel region – the part of the world that includes Chad, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Mali.. The RSF is also increasingly unable to pay the militants’ wages, leading them to turn to rape and looting as payment.
(Failed) International Interventions
On paper, CRSV is clearly illegal. It can be considered a warcrime, a crime against humanity, torture or even an act of genocide. However, international law is not worth much if it is not applied. In reality, it rarely leads to prosecutions. Because so few victims come forward, and there is such a lack of clear evidence, most perpetrators get away with it. There is also little emphasis on victims of sexual violence in peacebuilding efforts, despite the long-lasting scars CRSV has on communities.
Sudan is struggling with a humanitarian crisis on many fronts, and the serious aid cuts that the US, UK and EU have implemented are making an already desperate situation significantly worse. USAID provided 44 percent of the humanitarian aid the country received in 2024, and the funding freeze is having a profound effect.
NGOs are closing throughout the country, and those that remain have no choice but to decrease services. As USAID’s food stores rot, eighty percent of emergency kitchens have closed. Healthcare systems have fallen apart. According to the United Nations agency for reproductive and sexual care, women and girls will “pay for this crisis with their lives” if they are not given more support and sexual healthcare. 11 of the 61 “safe spaces” for victims of rape have closed due to funding cuts.
The SAF and RSF are actively blocking the aid that does make it in, compounding the issue. The SAF is blocking visa applications for humanitarian workers and is preventing the entry of aid to RSF-controlled areas in an attempt to starve the opposition. Both parties are extorting money at checkpoints and imposing fees on aid workers. The logistics involved in providing aid to people have become so complex and expensive that transporting a truck’s worth of food to Darfur costs more in fuel than the food itself is worth.
International Law Comes with International Responsibility
The conflict taking place in Sudan is bloody and cruel. A famine is affecting a massive part of the population, and millions of people have been forced to flee, with no near prospect of a ceasefire. Women and children also have to deal with widespread attacks of sexual violence.
Unprecedented levels of horrific, inhumane rape are taking place, with some victims being so young they cannot even speak, let alone speak out. There is little to no support available for victims, and the aid cuts the international community is introducing will be paid for in lives.
This crisis begs the question: What is the point in enshrining human rights in international law when, in practice, the international community not only fails to intervene but also slashes the very funding needed to uphold and protect those rights?
Edited by Lubaba Mahmud
