More than 500 Sudan sexual violence cases verified in 2025, UN says
June 18, 2026 (KHARTOUM) – The United Nations verified more than 500 cases of conflict-related sexual violence in Sudan in 2025, with women and girls making up 98% of the victims, UN Women said in a report on Thursday.
The agency noted that the majority of victims in Sudan were targeted on the basis of ethnicity, as well as for their real or perceived affiliation with rival forces.
However, the verified figures represent just the “tip of the iceberg” due to pervasive insecurity, social stigma, and fear of retaliation. According to UN Women’s latest data, the number of women and girls requiring support for gender-based violence has quadrupled since the war began more than three years ago, reaching an estimated 12.4 million people in 2026.
Globally, the scale of conflict-related sexual violence is soaring, with nearly 9,800 cases verified by the United Nations in 2025, a figure that has doubled compared to 2024. The report emphasized that tactics such as rape, gang rape, and sexual slavery are being systematically used to terrorize and control communities.
In response to the crisis, Sudanese women are working on the front lines to provide survivors with critical medical and psychological support. Many of these frontline workers, including psychologists and doctors, are operating out of displacement camps and cities like Port Sudan after being forced to flee their own homes.
Many of the survivors receiving treatment fled El Fasher, a city in North Darfur, where a U.N. Fact-Finding Mission found that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) carried out ethnically targeted killings and widespread sexual violence during their takeover.
Local women-led organizations are currently operating under immense pressure, attempting to meet rapidly growing humanitarian needs with severely limited resources.
UN Women called for an immediate end to the violence and urged international donors to allocate at least 15% of humanitarian funding directly to women-led organizations to scale up safety and mental health services.