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DISTRESSING CONTENT WARNING: Since 2023, the RSF have been fighting a civil war against the Sudanese Armed Forces for control of the country.
09:06, Tue, Jun 2, 2026 Updated: 09:19, Tue, Jun 2, 2026
Since 2023, the RSF have been fighting a civil war against the Sudanese Armed Forces for control (Image: Getty)
Since the outbreak of full-scale war in April 2023, conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) has been systematically deployed as a weapon of war in Sudan. Human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and various United Nations agencies, have extensively documented these atrocities, confirming that they constitute severe violations of international humanitarian law and amount to war crimes.
Reports indicate that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias have used widespread sexual violence, including gang rape, sexual slavery and targeted abductions, to terrorise populations, force displacement and assert control over key regions such as Khartoum, Gezira and Darfur. To make matters worse, those who do survive face immense secondary trauma due to deeply entrenched social stigma, which often leads to community rejection or retaliatory violence. Medical, legal and psychosocial support systems within Sudan have also largely collapsed, leaving victims with severely limited access to emergency healthcare or post-rape care, according to Amnesty.
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The conflict has driven Syria into the world's largest displacement and humanitarian crisis (Image: Getty)
The ongoing conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF has driven the country into the world's largest displacement and humanitarian crisis, with millions facing acute hunger, lack of medical supplies and constant exposure to violence.
According to Hala Alkarib, director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA), she vividly remembers the case of a schoolteacher who allegedly negotiated with seven RSF men to gang rape her instead of her 14-year-old daughter. In another shocking case, a mother had reportedly lost her husband and was fleeing eastern Gezira on foot with her three daughters after they were gang-raped. On the journey, she mistook the blood coming from her 18-year-old daughter as menstrual bleeding, when in fact she had cut her vein, after which she tragically bled to death.
"Numerous survivors who suffered violence from the RSF also faced blame and shame from their communities," Ms Alkarib wrote in The Guardian, citing another case where a 21-year-old woman bled to death after her rape became known and her family removed her from the hospital in shame.
A July 2024 Human Rights Watch report documented widespread sexual violence, including gang rape and forced marriages, committed by the RSF in Khartoum (Image: Getty)
Since 2023, the RSF has been fighting a civil war against the SAF for control of Sudan, after seizing power along with the SAF in the 2021 Sudanese coup d'état. In 2025, it established a parallel government called the Government of Peace and Unity.
In a report released in July 2024, Human Rights Watch documented widespread acts of sexual violence, including gang rape and forced marriages, committed by RSF in Khartoum since the onset of the 2023 conflict. The 89-page report, titled "Khartoum is Not Safe for Women", highlighted the severe impact on women and girls. Both the RSF and SAF obstructed humanitarian aid, and, despite the clear evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity, neither party took meaningful steps to prevent or investigate these abuses.
In January 2025, the US Government officially accused the RSF of committing genocide and imposed sanctions on the group's leader, Muhammad Dagalo, better known by his nom de guerre, Hemedti. These sanctions, which included asset freezes and a travel ban, intend to hold the RSF accountable for widespread violence, including ethnic killings, rape and forced displacement.
The UK has heavily aligned itself with these actions by imposing its own asset freezes and travel bans on top RSF commanders, targeting their financial advisers and explicitly warning that the group's actions bear the "hallmarks of genocide".
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