Darfur women face ‘near-constant’ sexual violence risk, MSF warns

May 28, 2025 (BRUSSELS) – Women and girls in Sudan’s conflict-ridden Darfur region are at a near-constant risk of sexual violence, with many attacks heinously cruel and services for survivors critically lacking, aid group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said on Wednesday.

The organisation warned that while the accurate scale of the crisis is difficult to quantify due to limited services and barriers to reporting, survivors consistently recount horrifying stories of brutal violence and rape by multiple perpetrators, including armed actors.

“Women and girls do not feel safe anywhere. They are attacked in their own homes, when fleeing violence, getting food, collecting firewood, working in the fields,” said Claire San Filippo, MSF emergency coordinator, in the statement. “These attacks are heinous and cruel… Sexual violence is not a natural or inevitable consequence of war; it can constitute a war crime.”

MSF called on warring parties to hold their fighters accountable and protect civilians, stressing the urgent need to scale up medical and psychological services for survivors in Darfur and neighbouring eastern Chad, where many Sudanese have fled.

Between January 2024 and March 2025, MSF treated 659 survivors of sexual violence in South Darfur alone. Of these, 94% were women and girls, 86% reported rape, and 56% said their assailant was a non-civilian, such as a member of military, police, or other armed groups. Alarmingly, 31% of these survivors were younger than 18, with 7% under 10 years old. MSF stated these figures are likely an underestimate.

The situation is similar in eastern Chad. In Adré, MSF said almost half of the 44 sexual violence survivors treated since January 2025 were children. In Wadi Fira Province, 81 of the 94 survivors treated between January and March 2025 were under 18 years old.

Survivors described harrowing ordeals. “Some people came at night to rape the women and take everything… The women didn’t hide because it was just beating and rape for us, but the men would get killed,” a woman in West Darfur told MSF.

A 17-year-old survivor recounted being raped by seven members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in public after being accused of being affiliated with the Sudanese army. Another woman told MSF she was singled out and raped by RSF members after they found her first aid nursing certificate, accusing her of wanting to treat “the enemy.”

MSF highlighted that limited humanitarian aid forces people, particularly women, to take risks, such as walking long distances to access basic needs or working in hazardous environments, thereby increasing their vulnerability.

Survivors face significant barriers to accessing care, including a lack of services, shame, and fear of stigma or retaliation. “I cannot say anything to the community because it will be a shame for my family,” one survivor in eastern Chad told MSF.

Where MSF has implemented community-based care models in South Darfur, training local health workers to provide initial support and referrals, there has been a steep increase in women and adolescents seeking care. In Tawila, North Darfur, an MSF-supported hospital received 48 survivors of sexual violence between January and early May 2025, many arriving after recent attacks.

“Access to services for survivors of sexual violence is lacking and, like most humanitarian and healthcare services in Sudan, must urgently be scaled up,” said Ruth Kauffman, MSF emergency medical manager. “Care must be tailored from the outset to mitigate against the many overwhelming barriers survivors face.”