WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: A senior doctor reveals 14 infants have been raped in a conflict that is also triggering mass famine.

12:05, Fri, Jan 9, 2026 Updated: 12:06, Fri, Jan 9, 2026

In a series of harrowing accounts, medical officials have revealed the depraved scale of sexual violence in Sudan's ongoing civil war. The atrocities have reached a point of unimaginable cruelty, with even the youngest infants targeted in a calculated campaign of terror. These crimes are taking place against the backdrop of a catastrophic power struggle that began in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The conflict has displaced millions of people, triggered a famine that threatens to kill hundreds of thousands, and effectively collapsed the nation's healthcare system. Humanitarian groups have warned that sexual violence is being used as a deliberate tool to degrade and displace communities.

RSF soldiers

RSF soldiers in Sudan (illustrative image) (Image: Rapid Support Forces (RSF)/AFP v)

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At the Omdurman Maternity Hospital, the director general, Imad al-Din Abdullah al-Siddiq, described a pattern of violence that spares no one. "The rapes are in very large numbers, far more than what is recorded," Al-Siddiq told Al Jazeera.

He revealed a stomach-churning statistic regarding the youngest victims.

He said: "More than 14 female infants less than the age of two were raped. An infant! This is documented by NGOs."

The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) has documented nearly 1,300 cases of gender-based violence, but the true figure is believed to be much higher. Survivors who have managed to speak out describe a nightmare of abduction and gang rape.

Mariam, who was intercepted while fleeing Gezira State, recalled being singled out by armed men.

She told Al Jazeera: "They took me to a place… It was an empty room with a mattress. They told me to lie down, and then they raped me."

Her aunt, who was waiting in the car, confirmed the perpetrators' identity: "Of course, they were from the RSF".

As the United Nations warns of severe funding gaps that will see food rations cut this month, the women and children of Sudan remain trapped between the threat of starvation and the sickening reality of a war fought on their bodies.