There have been multiple reports of civilians being raped by armed men in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum where fighting broke out last month, say government officials.
Four women and a girl, three of them refugees, are being supported by a specialist unit whose director said she thought most of the sexual violence in the city was going unreported.
“I believe that the cases are way more than that, but because of what has been going on, not all the victims can reach us and get the support needed,” said Suliema Ishaq, the director of the combating violence against women unit at the Ministry of Social Affairs in Sudan.
Two of the women said they were raped by members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The three refugees living in the city after fleeing violence in their own countries, reported being raped by unknown armed men.
More than 600 people, including civilians, have been killed and more 5,000 people have been wounded since 15 April, when fighting broke out between the Sudanese army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, headed by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti). The two men had been sharing power since the military coup in October 2021, which ejected the civilian members of a transitional government – itself created after dictator Omar al-Bashir was ousted.
Just 16% of the hospitals in Khartoum are functioning at full capacity, with health officials reporting some centres are occupied by RSF forces, which control almost 90% of the capital.
Ishaq said the violence and the lack of health resources meant her unit could only offer “the minimum of help”. “There are no safe passages to places where there are medicines, these places are being occupied,” she said.
The UN has also said resources have been “severely curtailed” in Khartoum and in most of Darfur. “There are critical shortages of supplies for the clinical management of rape and dignity kits, as the stocks are inaccessible,” the UN population fund, UNFPA, reported last week.
Despite the two sides agreeing on Thursday to protect civilians to allow for the delivery of humanitarian supplies, fierce fighting and airstrikes have continued across Khartoum and in El Geneina in West Darfur over the weekend. Peace talks between the two sides are planned for this week.
As the commander of the Janjaweed militia, Hemedti is accused of previously using rape as a weapon of war in the two-decade-long conflict in Darfur.
Armed groups have been accused of a series of rapes and abuses since anti-government protests began in Sudan at the end of 2018 and doctors in Khartoum said they believed the RSF had carried out more than 70 rapes when it attacked a peaceful demonstration in June 2019.
