Human Rights Watch (HRW) yesterday accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias, at war with the army, of committing widespread sexual violence in southern Sudan.
It is the latest such report by international monitors alleging sexual violence during Sudan’s 20-month war which has led to what the US has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
In its new report, HRW said it had documented dozens of cases since September last year involving women and girls aged between 7 and 50 who were subjected to sexual violence, including gang rape and sexual slavery, in South Kordofan state.
Photo: Khartoum State Government via Reuters
The latest details follow a separate report last week from the New York-based watchdog which more broadly accused the RSF and allied Arab militias of carrying out numerous abuses, mainly against ethnic Nuba civilians, in South Kordofan state from December last year to March.
The attacks “had not been widely reported” and constituted “war crimes,” it said.
Parts of South Kordofan and parts of Blue Nile state are controlled by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), a rebel group.
The SPLM-N led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu refused to join other Sudanese rebels in signing a 2020 peace deal with the government, as al-Hilu sought a secular state as a prerequisite.
Many South Kordofan residents are members of Sudan’s Christian minority.
Al-Hilu also at that time refused talks with RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, linking him with atrocities.
The SPLM-N has clashed with both the army and RSF in parts of South Kordofan since April last year when the war between the paramilitaries and Sudanese Armed Forces began, HRW said.
The conflict has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, internally displaced more than 8 million and forced more than 3 million others to seek safety in neighboring nations, according to the UN.
According to the HRW report, many of the victims were gang-raped at their or their neighbors’ homes, often in front of families, while some were abducted and held in conditions of enslavement.
One survivor, a 35-year-old Nuba woman, described being gang-raped by six RSF fighters who stormed her family compound, and killed her husband and son when they tried to intervene.
“They kept raping me, all six of them,” she said.
Another survivor, aged 18, recounted being taken in February with 17 others to a base where they joined 33 detained women and girls.
“On a daily basis for three months, the fighters raped and beat the women and girls, including the 18-year-old survivor, crimes that also constitute sexual slavery,” HRW said.
At times, the captives were even chained together, it said.
“These acts of sexual violence, which constitute war crimes ... underscore the urgent need for meaningful international action to protect civilians and deliver justice,” HRW said.
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher raised the alarm late last month over an “epidemic of sexual violence” against women in Sudan, saying that the world “must do better.”
In its initial report last week, HRW urged the UN and African Union to “urgently deploy a mission to protect civilians in Sudan.”
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