Dozens of rapes documented in Sudan’s Darfur, rights group says
January 22, 2024 – (KAMPALA) – A Darfur-focused advocacy group said on Wednesday it had documented dozens of rapes committed by Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in two cities in the region between April 2023 and December 2024.
The Darfur Advocacy Group, a youth-led organization formed in 2023, said its researchers documented 22 cases of rape in El Fasher and Zalingei. The group, which focuses on documenting human rights abuses, said 17 of the rapes occurred in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, and five in Zalingei, the capital of Central Darfur.
“We have documented 22 confirmed cases of rape in El Fasher and Zalingei,” Ikhlas Ahmed, the group’s Advocacy and Programs Officer, told a news conference in Kampala on Wednesday.
Ahmed said that insecurity continued shelling and access restrictions due to an RSF siege made it impossible to document at least 80 further cases reported in El Fasher.
The RSF could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Darfur Advocacy Group stated that the sexual assaults were used to target non-Arab communities, aiming to destroy their social fabric. The group said women and girls were targeted on roads, on farms and inside their homes.
Reports received by the group included incidents of gang rape in the villages of Jagojgo, Tabaldia, and Jalidat in North Darfur. It also documented the rape of an 18-year-old girl, resulting in pregnancy, and the rape of a two-and-a-half-year-old child by a uniformed perpetrator.
Reports of Kidnappings
The group also reported dozens of enforced disappearances of women and girls in El Fasher.
Among the documented cases were two sisters, aged 18 and 20, kidnapped and held for 21 days. The group said the sisters were repeatedly raped, along with 12 other women. One woman was killed by sniper fire while attempting to escape, it added.
The group received several reports of kidnappings but could not fully document them due to the security situation. It stated that RSF fighters kidnapped several women and girls from the Al-Thawra neighbourhood of El Fasher and that the kidnappers demanded ransom from their families.
Ahmed said numerous cases of gang rape, kidnapping and sexual enslavement of women and girls had been reported in the Al-Hasaheisa camp after the RSF took control of Zalingei.
A survivor who anonymously spoke to the group described meeting seven women in Central Darfur state. Some were contemplating suicide due to a lack of psychological support, she said.
The advocacy group called on civil society organizations and human rights defenders to meticulously document all cases of sexual violence. It also urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to expedite investigations into war crimes in Darfur, which date back to 2003 and called for comprehensive support programs for survivors.
The documented violations against women and girls in Darfur constitute undeniable and inexcusable crimes against humanity, said Abdulbasit Al-Haj, legal advisor at the We Are with You organization (Waiyamo).