Shocking testimony emerges of systematic rape in Sudan

Salam, her sisters, younger brother, and parents had journeyed from their own home in Bahri to visit their maternal grandmother and two uncles, who shared a home in the capital. It was while they were there that it became a battleground.

"We were staying at my grandmother's house during some nights of Ramadan, and Khartoum 3 (the neighbourhood) became one of the most severely affected," she recalls. "From the first gunshots, the electricity and water were cut off."

Salam said the RSF quickly entered the area and immediately began committing "horrific violations" that she describes as "terrifying". This was before news of their atrocities got out.

"Our luck was terrible. Armed members of the RSF surrounded the house, forcing my uncles to lock us in a small room at the back. The room had almost no ventilation—just a single small window—and with no power. The situation became unbearable."

'Moments felt like days'

The girls spent an entire year there, because it was locked from the outside with a heavy chain and padlock, to make it seem abandoned in case of a raid. It turned out to be a wise precaution.

"They entered the house, searched it, and beat my uncles. Even my elderly grandmother wasn't spared. I remember that moment clearly, like a scene from a film."

She explains that the four sisters' room only had two beds. "We crawled under them and covered our mouths with our hands until we couldn't hear our own breathing. I still don't know why the gunmen didn't enter the room. Those moments felt like days."

After a year, Salam's father miraculously managed to enter the area and reach them safely, bringing information. "That's when we learned just how dangerous things were outside. My father and uncles insisted on keeping us locked up because they had heard of rapes and kidnappings targeting women and girls."

A sanitary pad wrapper

Salam and her sisters remained hidden in their single room, with armed men in buildings surrounding the house. "My father would bring our necessities, especially monthly items like sanitary products, hiding them in his clothes so the RSF wouldn't notice there were girls in the house," she recalls.

"For a year, we stayed locked in that room, leaving only when absolutely necessary, tiptoeing so no-one would hear us. We moved like shadows. It was a sanitary napkin wrapper that exposed us.

"At 10am, the RSF stormed my grandmother's house. My uncle opened the door. They beat him and pushed him aside. They were convinced there were girls in the house. The scene was chaotic, with shouting and screaming. Then we heard gunshots. They shot my uncle while he was defending us."

After her uncle's death, the gunmen withdrew, and the family hurriedly buried him in front of the house before taking flight. "I didn't feel alive until we left Khartoum."

Rape as a war tactic

In Sudan, as in other conflicts, rape has been used as a tactic of war. Sulaima Ishaq Elkhalifa, director of the Unit for Combating Violence against Women and Children in Sudan, emphasised the severity of the situation.

"Sexual violence is a deliberate tactic employed by the RSF. The areas where these incidents were most frequent were typically those entered or controlled by the RSF. Most cases in Khartoum took place in survivors' homes."

Speaking to Al Majalla, Elkhalifa compared the current plight of women and girls in Sudan to the atrocities perpetrated by Islamic State (IS) terrorists, adding that "some women were trafficked across borders and sold, much like the Yazidis in Iraq".

The perpetrators' justification was often that the women were "opposed to the RSF," Elkhalifa said. "The main terror instilled by the RSF is fear of sexual violence and kidnapping. Some girls have been taken for a long time. Their fate remains unknown."

Everyone is at risk

Mohamed Al-Amin of the United Nations Population Fund in Sudan says around seven million women and girls in Sudan are at risk of sexual and gender-based violence. "These crimes, including gang rape, are recurring, and their impact will affect both individuals and society for years."

A Sudanese government organisation called Combating Violence Against Women Unit says it has documented 191 rape cases, with 34 involving minors, some as young as ten. Most suspect this is the tip of the iceberg, however.

Elkhalifa said no age group had been spared the abuse, with women in their 70s also having been raped. More than 50 survivors have been transferred to areas offering safe exit services," she said.

There are no official estimates of the number of pregnancies resulting from rape, but Elkhalifa said she had handled eight such cases. "Five were terminated, the rest gave birth, with the children then handed to alternative families," she said, adding that the adoption was as per the survivors' wishes.

'I woke up in hospital'

N, a 17-year-old girl, recounts her experience of "gang rape by men in RSF uniforms", which began one afternoon when she was making her way back from a friend's house and noticed a combat vehicle with soldiers in the street.

She tried to turn around, but fear slowed her down and she felt as if the ground were swallowing her. A gunman spotted her, chased her, and caught up with her.

N then recalls the baton blows she took to her body before one of the men pulled her headscarf off and grabbed her hair. Then they took turns raping her. "Those moments seem erased from my memory," she says.

"All I can recall is my mother standing over me, screaming, before I lost consciousness. I woke up in the hospital. It seems someone took me home." N is now receiving treatment. She cannot stand. Her injuries and pain are severe, as is the psychological trauma caused by the attack.

Documenting survival

Amnesty International has now published testimonies from women who have survived rape in Sudan. It makes for sober reading.

In one documented incident, RSF members kidnapped 24 women and girls, took them to a hotel in Nyala, and held them there for several days, where they were raped by multiple gunmen in conditions that amounted to sexual slavery.

"Scores of women and girls, some as young as 12, were subjected to conflict-related sexual violence, including rape, by members of the warring sides, mainly RSF and allied militias," the Amnesty report says.

Most of the survivors were Sudanese, although some were foreign nationals. Many were taken from their homes or when they went out to look for food or other necessities.

Unwanted pregnancies

Another international group, Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa, reports on the unwanted pregnancies resulting from the systematic rape in Sudan.

"Of the 244 cases of sexual violence that have been documented and monitored, we have identified 14 cases of unwanted pregnancies," it says. "However, we believe that these numbers are just a small fraction of the actual figures.

"Due to dangerous travel routes, poor internet and cellular networks, and the overall instability caused by the war, obtaining information about sexual violence cases in Sudan poses significant challenges for activists and service providers."

Rape survivors suffer from severe physical and psychological trauma, it said, with seven cases of suicide as a result of rape documented in Khartoum, Al-Gezira, and Sennar.

The horrors of sexual violence in Sudan's civil war are only now emerging, with more detail expected. One would hope that this added to pressure on Hemedti and al-Burhan to negotiate an end. Unfortunately, there are no signs that they intend to do so any time soon.