Sudan: RSF Fighters Rape Women and Girls, Hold Sex Slaves

A 35-year-old ethnic Nuba woman recounted how six RSF fighters in beige uniform stormed into her family compound, with one man saying, “You Nuba, today is your day.” The men then gang raped her. “My husband and my son tried to defend me, so one of the RSF fighters shot and killed them. Then they kept raping me, all six of them,” she said.
“Survivors described being gang raped, in front of their families or over prolonged periods of time, including while being held as sex slaves by RSF fighters,” said Belkis Wille, associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch. “United Nations and African Union member states should urgently act to assist survivors, protect other women and girls, and ensure justice for these heinous crimes.”
In October 2024, Human Rights Watch interviewed 93 people in person and remotely, including 70 people in informal settlements for displaced people in the Nuba Mountains region of South Kordofan state, currently under the control of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North (SPLM-N). Researchers interviewed seven survivors of rape, including one who said she was held with 50 other women and raped repeatedly over three months. Human Rights Watch also interviewed 12 people who said their relatives or friends were raped, in many cases in incidents they personally witnessed.
 
In total, the survivors and other witnesses shared the details of 79 girls and women, from ages from 7 to 50, who were raped. Most of the incidents documented were gang rapes that occurred since December 31, 2023 in and around the town of Habila, and at an RSF base, also involving victims from the town of Fayu, approximately 17 kilometers south of Habila, in South Kordofan. Survivors and witnesses said the perpetrators were all uniformed members of the RSF, or allied militia members, and some said they knew some of the perpetrators by name from the community. In the cases documented by Human Rights Watch, RSF fighters raped 14 women and girls in their own or their neighbors’ homes, often in front of family members. In five such cases, the attackers raped the women and girls after killing or threatening family members.