A report published by the UN Human Rights Office on Tuesday documents 546 verified incidents of conflict-related sexual violence across 16 of Sudan's 18 states since the civil war began in April 2023. It attributes about 87 percent of the cases to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), its affiliates and allied Arab militias.
Scope of the Crisis
The researchers who compiled the report, titled 'Three Years Too Long,' verified that at least 838 people — 539 women, 284 girls, eight men and seven boys — had fallen victim to rape, gang rape, sexual slavery, forced marriage, forced prostitution, sexual torture or trafficking. However, the Human Rights Office said these figures represented only 'the tip of the iceberg,' given persistent underreporting of incidents driven by stigma, insecurity, collapsed health services and a nonfunctioning justice system.
The UN's high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, said sexual violence 'is being used as a weapon of war,' which constitutes a war crime and, when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack, a crime against humanity. The report states there are reasonable grounds to believe that acts committed in Darfur meet this threshold, particularly during RSF offensives in El-Geneina and Ardamata in 2023, and at the Zamzam displacement camp and El-Fasher in 2025.
Details of Atrocities
Among the documented cases, almost one in four involved gang rape; in one case at least 10 perpetrators attacked a single girl. The UN also documented at least 85 women and girls who were held in sexual slavery and forced into domestic labor, as well as the deaths of at least 13 victims, mostly following gang rapes, the youngest of whom was just 9 years old. At least 59 women and girls became pregnant or bore children as a result of rape.
The report also described ethnically targeted sexual violence against the Masalit community in West Darfur. Attackers reportedly asked victims what tribe they belonged to before raping them. They told some in 2023 that 'this year, all of you Masalit girls will deliver our children' and 'if you are Masalit, we will slaughter you today.'
Activist Response
Sudanese rights activist Hala Al-Karib said this high proportion reflected the very nature of a force that is 'structured to terrorize and disintegrate communities.' She told Arab News the 'long overdue' UN report confirmed behavior that rights activists had been documenting for three years: the systematic and intentional use of sexual violence across Sudan. 'As activists, we welcome the report,' she said, adding that she hopes it would lead to a stronger international response to violence against women and civilians.
But she said the international community has consistently underestimated the scale of the crisis in Sudan. 'Sudan is beyond a humanitarian crisis,' she said as she described a country of nearly 50 million people that is 'exposed daily to systematic atrocities' fueled by an uninterrupted flow of weapons across multiple border crossings, which the Security Council has failed to confront despite years of warnings. 'Sudan is increasingly becoming a playground for regional actors interested in extracting resources while showing little regard for the humanity, safety and well-being of the Sudanese people,' Al-Karib said.
RSF's Role
Regarding the report's conclusion that the vast majority of documented cases of sexual violence were attributable to the RSF, which has been locked in a conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces for control of the country for more than three years, she said the paramilitary force was not built around a coherent political project but rather 'to destabilize and fracture communities.' She traced its lineage back to militias once known as the Murahaleen and the Janjaweed, which were used by the government of the former president, Omar Al-Bashir, to suppress uprisings in Darfur and the Nuba Mountains. The RSF even inflicts violence on the very communities from which many of its fighters originated, Al-Karib added.
UN Spokesperson Statement
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told Arab News that the number of documented cases of sexual violence 'should horrify any right-thinking person,' but represents only 'the tip of the iceberg' of underreported abuses. 'Far from the limelight,' he added, these are 'crimes being perpetrated over and over again against women, against men, against children,' and 'there will need to be accountability for all of this.'
Calls for Action
The report urged all parties to the conflict to take action to halt sexual violence through enforceable command orders, to ensure independent investigations are carried out into cases of this kind, and to lift amnesty provisions for international crimes. It also called on the international community to ensure that the principle of accountability for violations remains central to any ceasefire agreement and peace process.
