GENEVA - A UN Human Rights report issued Tuesday lays bare the brutality and magnitude of conflict-related sexual violence in Sudan since the outbreak of the conflict in April 2023, and its profound, long-term impacts on victims, families and communities.
The report finds that sexual violence has accompanied the geographic spread of the conflict, as well as displacement journeys. It has been used consistently as a tactic to terrorise and traumatise the civilian population.
"Unless the patterns and impacts of conflict-related sexual violence are addressed through justice, victim-centred responses and efforts to tackle stigma and discrimination, peace and social cohesion in Sudan risk being undermined for years to come," says the report.
"As I warned at the end of my mission to Sudan in January, sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war. This is a war crime and, if committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack, a crime against humanity," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.
In Darfur, there are reasonable grounds to believe that some acts of sexual violence, committed in the context of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population, may amount to crimes against humanity, says the report.
The UN Human Rights Office has verified 546 incidents of conflict-related sexual violence in 16 of the 18 states of Sudan from the beginning of the conflict to mid-April this year, affecting at least 838 victims - 539 women, 284 girls, eight men and seven boys.
These figures represent only the tip of the iceberg of the actual magnitude of incidents, says the report, as persistent underreporting has obscured the full scale of the prevalence of sexual violence.
Most of the verified incidents were attributed to men in Rapid Support Forces (RSF) uniforms, its affiliates and Arab militias. Incidents have also been attributed to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), affiliated security actors, the Joint Forces, other armed movements and armed militias.
Since the outbreak of the conflict, says the report, sexual violence has been perpetrated in conjunction with systematic and coordinated attacks on civilians as a tactic of war. Forms of sexual violence documented by the Office include rape and gang rape, sexual slavery, forced marriage, forced prostitution, sexual torture, and trafficking for the purpose of sexual violence.
Almost a quarter of the incidents involved gang rape. One documented attack involved at least 10 perpetrators who raped a girl. Repeated patterns include the use of sexual violence as a means of controlling civilian movement, abductions linked to sexual violence, sexual slavery and sexual violence in detention. The UN Human Rights Office has documented the cases of at least 85 women and girls who were held in sexual slavery and compelled to undertake domestic labour and generate income.
The report also documents the deaths of at least 13 victims (women, men and children), mostly following brutal gang rapes. The youngest was nine years old. Many more suffered from serious medical complications exacerbated by the absence of functioning health facilities. At least 59 women and girls became pregnant or bore children from rape.
Sexual violence has been perpetrated as retaliation based on perceived affiliation with specific parties, in addition to ethnically motivated attacks, the report finds. Many ethnic Masalit victims from West Darfur shared that attackers asked about their tribe before raping them. Victims reported having been told, in 2023, "This year, all of you Masalit girls will deliver our children," and "If you are Masalit, we will slaughter you today".
Türk called for timely, independent and impartial investigations into acts of sexual violence committed during the conflict, in order to ensure accountability.
"Persistent impunity is clearly deepening harms and reinforcing cycles of violations and abuses," Türk said.
"All perpetrators, including those exercising command responsibility, must be held fully accountable, and victims must be guaranteed access to effective remedy, including reparation."
It calls on the parties to the conflict to, among other things, take concrete and verifiable measures to prevent sexual violence and urges the international community to ensure justice and accountability remain central to their support for efforts towards a ceasefire and resolution of the conflict.
To read the report, please click here.
