Khartoum – “Al-Quds Al-Arabi”: The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan (OCHA) warned of escalating sexual violence and targeting of women in the Sudanese war, indicating that it has received alarming reports of young girls and adolescents being subjected to sexual assaults during the escalating wave of violence in eastern Gezira state.
Reports of suicide cases
Local reports had spoken of dozens of women in eastern Gezira state in central Sudan attempting suicide for fear of being raped, coinciding with widespread attacks carried out by the Rapid Support Forces on the area.
According to Salma Ishaq, director of the Unit for Combating Violence Against Women and Children in Sudan, the unit has documented 306 rape cases, including 48 children, since the outbreak of the war in mid-April last year. She suggested in a statement to “Al-Quds Al-Arabi” that the numbers are likely much higher than that.
She indicated that the mentioned monitoring operations do not include the attacks carried out by the Rapid Support Forces recently on villages and cities in eastern Gezira, pointing to the challenges facing work teams in documenting sexual violations due to the collapse of the health system and the interruption and weakness of communications.
She pointed out the difficulties related to security challenges and weak communications, while community mechanisms have become unable to link victims to the unit. She noted that victims of sexual violence do not receive the required care and first aid due to lack of security, lack of reporting and access, as well as the inadequacy of health institutions’ capabilities with the high pressure and high need for care, and the closure of a number of hospitals and health institutions in areas of military operations.
She added: “Usually information reaches us through health authorities that indicate the age and condition of the survivor and her health status, as well as the services she received and her statement about the party that committed the violation.”
She pointed out that “in the absence of health services, monitoring and documentation processes completely collapse.”
She said that the unit was able to monitor 26 cases of rape when the Rapid Support Forces invaded Gezira state last December, and was unable to reach the rest of the victims in the state, which witnessed successive waves of widespread violence.
Last Sunday, the Sudanese Doctors Union announced the registration of 47 cases of rape during the attacks carried out by the Rapid Support Forces recently on Gezira state.
It condemned the campaign of gross human rights violations, which it said the Rapid Support Forces committed against unarmed civilians in villages and cities of Gezira state.
It indicated that it monitored horrific cases of rape against women after men’s blood was shed in cold blood.
It said that “these vile crimes are not only a blatant assault on the dignity and safety of these innocents, but a fatal stab to humanity and a step backwards in the march to protect human rights.”
It appealed to the international community with all its institutions to move immediately, and open an urgent and independent investigation to reveal the details of these crimes and bring their perpetrators to justice, stressing that “these brutal acts that leave devastating effects on victims and their families cannot be tolerated.”
Since October 20, the Rapid Support Forces have been carrying out widespread attacks on localities east of Gezira state, after a field commander belonging to them in the area surrendered to the army, which resulted in hundreds of deaths and the displacement of entire villages.
“No to Women’s Oppression” Initiative: Our bodies are not a battlefield for your battle
The resistance committees said that the Rapid Support Forces stormed homes in eastern Gezira, coinciding with the violent battles taking place in the region and carried out fierce retaliatory campaigns that are considered the strongest of their kind in the region, indicating the monitoring of sexual violations and rapes targeting women as well as widespread looting operations.
Last April, a 20-year-old girl (K. L.) was gang-raped after being kidnapped from her family’s home in the city of Al-Hasahisa, located in Gezira state in central Sudan.
According to an account provided by the resistance committees, a heavily armed force belonging to the Rapid Support Forces kidnapped the girl from her home in one of the city’s neighborhoods located west of Gezira state.
The girl was subjected to gang rape and torture for five days, before being returned in a bad psychological state, which the resistance committees considered a continuation of the series of brutal violations and sexual violence directed against women.
Lack of accountability
The resistance committees in the city of Al-Hasahisa in central Sudan accused the Rapid Support Forces of kidnapping women and committing widespread sexual violations in the city.
They attributed the increase in the frequency of sexual assaults to the absence of accountability from the leadership of the forces present in the city and the soldiers’ loss of control, which portends more violations.
The Gezira Legal Conference also quoted an eyewitness as confirming that members of the Rapid Support Forces gang-raped a girl from Al-Halaliya in Gezira state.
He said, “I saw a group of militia members taking turns raping one of the girls in Al-Halaliya, and she was in a state of panic and fear.”
The Preparatory Committee of the Sudanese Doctors Union had denounced the systematic attacks against Sudanese girls and women, warning that wars are not fought on women’s bodies.
It called for broad international pressure to stop these crimes, which it described as “savage and inhuman.”
It confirmed that the crime of rape is a major and complex crime, whose impact on the victim does not end, and that in addition to physical harm, psychological harm continues for long periods and may continue for life and may lead to suicide if the victim does not receive appropriate support, and the harm extends to include the family that suffers greatly as a result and the community that loses security and safety.
It accused the Rapid Support Forces of using rape as a weapon in their wars, indicating that this happened during the Darfur war and the dispersal of civilian sit-ins in front of the General Command of the Armed Forces on June 3, 2019, and that these forces returned and used it during the ongoing war in Khartoum and other regions in Sudan.
The Sudanese “No to Women’s Oppression” initiative said in a letter addressed to the military parties, “Our bodies are not a battlefield for your battle for power. What your forces are doing in terms of rape, murder, intimidation and theft during your war that arose from what you created with your own hands (Rapid Support Forces) is a continuation of the rape, burning and killing of Sudanese during the wars in Darfur, the Nuba Mountains and the Blue Nile.”
Amnesty International said in a report published in August of last year, entitled “Death Came to Our Home,” that the violence has led to the killing and injury of thousands of people since the outbreak of the conflict between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces, including women and girls as young as 12 years old being subjected to sexual violence, indicating that civilians throughout Sudan are living in unimaginable terror.
During his address to the fifty-third session of the Human Rights Council, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said: “I was horrified by allegations of sexual violence, including rape.” He added: “My office has received credible reports indicating that in almost all cases, the perpetrator was identified by the Rapid Support Forces.” He continued: “There are few opportunities to obtain medical and psychological support, and many cases go unreported.”
In a report published by the UN Fact-Finding Mission in Sudan last October, the Rapid Support Forces were held responsible for committing sexual violations to a horrific degree, including gang rape, kidnapping and detention under conditions amounting to “sexual slavery.”
