Rights Group: RSF Behind Systematic Sexual Violence Across Sudan

The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) has verified 1,294 incidents of sexual and gender-based violence across 14 Sudanese states since the civil war erupted in April 2023, attributing the vast majority of identified attacks to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Key Findings

SIHA's report, released on Thursday, found that where perpetrators could be identified, 87% of cases implicated RSF fighters. Rape accounted for more than three-quarters of documented incidents, and 225 cases involved children, some reportedly as young as four years old. The organisation describes the abuses as "widespread, repeated, intentional, and often targeted" rather than isolated crimes.

SIHA outlines a recurring three-stage pattern accompanying RSF territorial advances: initial home invasions and looting combined with rape; subsequent attacks in public spaces as control is consolidated; and prolonged detention of women subjected to torture, gang rape and forced marriage.

"Women and girls from non-Arab tribes in Darfur, including the Masalit, Berti, Fur and Zaghawa, were directly targeted," the report says, noting witness accounts of RSF fighters in Al-Gezira singling out lighter-skinned girls and women aged roughly 14–30 as "trophies."

Last week the Sudan Doctors Network documented 19 additional rape cases at the al-Afad camp in al-Dabba, where women who fled the recently fallen city of el-Fasher were attacked; two survivors are now reported to be pregnant and are receiving medical care.

Wider Conflict Context

Major combat has shifted from Darfur — after the RSF captured el-Fasher in October — to central Kordofan, which lies between government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) territory in the east and RSF-controlled areas in the west. The RSF has been advancing toward urban centres across West Kordofan.

After RSF forces captured the Heglig oilfield near the South Sudan border on December 8, both sides agreed to allow South Sudanese troops to secure the site, which is an important economic lifeline to the region. South Sudan later reported that seven of its soldiers were killed in a drone strike that it attributed to the SAF.

On December 5, authorities say RSF fighters attacked a preschool in Kalogi locality, killing more than 100 people, including 46 children; officials reported subsequent strikes on paramedics and civilians who rushed to help the wounded. United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk warned days earlier that Kordofan faced "another wave of mass atrocities," saying history was "repeating itself." Since late October the UN has recorded at least 269 civilian deaths from bombardment, artillery and summary killings in the region, though communication blackouts suggest the actual toll may be higher.

The conflict has displaced an estimated 12.4 million people internally and pushed 3.3 million to flee as refugees since April 2023, creating what humanitarian organisations have called the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

International Response

This week Massad Boulos, a senior adviser to former President Donald Trump, met British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper; both governments pledged to work to "cut external financial and military backing for the belligerents" fueling the war. The United States also sanctioned four Colombian nationals accused of running a recruitment network that brought more than 300 military veterans to fight for the RSF. Investigators say a UAE-linked company organised some deployments; the UAE denies providing support to the RSF.

SIHA and other monitoring groups have called for urgent international action to protect civilians, investigate abuses and ensure accountability for the widespread use of sexual violence in the conflict.