It is the women of Sudan, who have long endured marginalization, harassment and sexual violence, that are now bearing the brunt of the war that began on April 15, 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

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Since the fighting started in mid-April, nearly 6 million people have fled their homes, seeking refuge elsewhere within Sudan or in neighboring countries. Of the 1.2 million who have fled to neighboring countries, nearly nine in 10 are women and children. 

Among the 4.55 million people internally displaced across Sudan, an estimated 1,092,000 are women and girls of reproductive age, and an estimated 108,740 are currently pregnant and in need of timely access to lifesaving and essential reproductive health services.

The healthcare system in the northern African country is in a perilous state. 70 to 80 percent of hospitals in conflict areas are not operational, with devastating consequences for women in need of maternal health medicines.

Research on education in Sudan conducted since the war erupted demonstrates the devastating impact it has had on the country’s 11 million students, half of whom are girls. Many could be forced into child marriage or flee their homes.

Amid this scenario, sexual and gender-based violence has become an epidemic. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than four million women and girls are at risk of sexual violence in Sudan.

Experts have expressed alarm at violations of human rights law and the brutal and widespread use of rape and other forms of sexual violence. Some of the reported rapes appeared to be ethnically and racially motivated.

The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa have documented hundreds of cases of women who were victimized by the RSF, either forcibly disappeared while trying to flee the fighting, kidnapped for ransom, or abducted and compelled to serve as sex slaves. According to Human Rights Watch, the RSF committed a staggering number of rapes and other war crimes during attacks on West Darfur’s capital, el-Geneina, between late April and late June 2023.

The UN released reports last week documenting how women and girls are being abducted and held in inhuman, degrading slave-like condition in areas controlled by the RSF in Darfur, where they are allegedly forcibly married and held for ransom. Women and girls have been seen in chains on pick-up trucks and cars.

Rehab Al-Mubarak, a member of Sudan’s Emergency Lawyers, explains the dire situation women are living under in Sudan. “Women have paid a high price for this war. They have been subjected to forced labor. Many have been gravely harmed, and many are being gravely harmed. Some have been forced to work in domestic labor, and have been subjected to horrific forms of sexual violence and brutally raped. They have few options, and they are struggling to survive and escape from the regions in which battles are raging.”

After almost a year of conflict, it is essential that all regional and international actors play a constructive role in bringing peace to Sudan, rather than overlooking gross human rights violations in pursuit of selfish economic and strategic interests.

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