Conflict in Sudan is taking a devastating toll on women and girls. Warring parties are using sexual violence as a weapon of war. Millions have been forced to flee their homes, often becoming heads of households while struggling to protect and feed their families. The international community must redouble efforts to broker a ceasefire, establish safe corridors for aid delivery, provide humanitarian funding that specifically meets women’s needs, strengthen mechanisms to document and prosecute sexual violence and support women’s effective participation in peace negotiations and peacebuilding.

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Sudan’s civil war was triggered by a power struggle between two men, but it has taken its greatest toll on women and girls. They’re being targeted by warring parties who deliberately use sexual violence as a weapon of war. There have been recent reports of women committing suicide after being raped by militiamen in front of their families, or doing so to escape this fate as paramilitary forces approach.

Since April 2023, conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemeti, have forced over 11 million people to flee their homes. Sudan has the largest internally displaced population in the world, estimated at eight million, while three million more have become refugees in neighbouring countries, particularly Chad, where they live in dire conditions.

Military and paramilitary forces are killing civilians and committing crimes against humanity and war crimes, including against women and girls. Both use control of food supplies as a weapon of war, blocking humanitarian deliveries, looting warehouses and destroying food stocks, crops and livestock. But with the RSF committing a disproportionate share of abuses, it’s the rebel troops that civilians, particularly women, fear the most.

The RSF appears close to defeating the SAF in North Darfur and capturing its capital, El Fasher. A massacre is expected: the RSF grew out of militias that committed genocide in Darfur two decades ago, and since mid-October, it has destroyed many villages inhabited by the Zaghawa ethnic group. The SAF meanwhile have razed farming settlements of non-Arab communities in Gezira state, with local pro-SAF militias burning homes, injuring and killing civilians and looting livestock.

An estimated 755,000 people risk starvation. According to the United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, almost 25 million are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, particularly food. A cholera outbreak has further strained a health system on the brink of collapse, and climate change is playing its part, with recent floods displacing thousands more.

The Sudanese state has virtually collapsed, with basic services non-existent and infrastructure such as communications largely destroyed. Humanitarian aid is desperately needed, but the fighting and lack of infrastructure make delivering it a huge challenge.

Gendered impacts

Conflict is taking its heaviest toll on women and girls. Many are forced to leave their homes, separated from male family members who stay behind to protect property or fight. Women are often left as the sole caregivers and providers for their families – but trying to earn money exposes them to grave danger, so they often struggle to feed their children.

Food insecurity disproportionately affects women, because they’re usually the last to eat. Pregnant and nursing mothers are particularly vulnerable to malnutrition, which affects their health and that of their young children.

As families experience economic hardship, women and girls face the prospect of early and forced marriage. In contexts of extreme stress and trauma, they’re exposed to rising domestic violence. When displaced, they face increased danger of sexual assault and rape, becoming increasingly vulnerable to sexual exploitation and trafficking.

Three months into the ongoing conflict, the UN estimated that the number of women and girls at risk of gender-based violence in Sudan had risen from 3 million to 4.2 million. At the one-year mark, its new estimate was 6.7 million.

Many schools have been damaged or destroyed, affecting girls most, with many leaving school due to early marriage and others unable to attend because when resources are scarce families prioritise education for boys, or because there aren’t educational facilities for displaced girls.

With many hospitals damaged or destroyed, access to reproductive and maternal healthcare is extremely limited. Mental health support, crucial for trauma survivors, is largely unavailable.

Voices from the frontline

Sulaima Elkhalifa is a Sudanese human rights defender and expert on gender-based violence.

 

Like the male population, women and girls are trying to escape bombings and avoid being caught in the crossfire. But women and girls are also being targeted as sexual violence has become a weapon of war that is being used systematically.

Attackers often target women who belong to particular tribes or accuse them of supporting the former government as an excuse for sexually assaulting them. The truth is no woman is exempt. Recently, 27 women from military families were abducted and repeatedly raped. Even those who stay at home to try to stay safe can be targeted by RSF soldiers who break in, threaten them with guns and steal their money and phones.

In an attempt to protect their daughters, some families marry them off at a young age or subject them to harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, which only cause more pain and deprive women of their freedoms and rights.

This violence is widespread and affects areas far beyond the capital, Khartoum, where the conflict began. It reaches regions such as Al Jazira, Darfur and Kordofan. This suggests the violence is part of a plan to change the demographics of the population.

Many women have lost their homes and their jobs. With hospitals destroyed, they have also lost access to basic health services, including maternal and mental healthcare. Basic needs are often unmet, exacerbating the trauma many have endured.

While there is some support for survivors, it’s difficult to access due to a lack of information, the absence of a proper referral system and the disruption of communication systems. The stigma surrounding sexual violence also prevents many women from seeking help and isolates them.

Even when they do seek and find support, it’s often for the physical health problems caused by the sexual violence they’ve endured rather than for the trauma itself. The violence they have experienced has long-term effects that require long-term intervention.

Sadly, many people deny or trivialise these crimes, adding to the pain of survivors. Soldiers have shared videos of their crimes, saying they are proud to rape and impregnate women, further robbing survivors of their dignity and privacy.

Historically, Sudanese women have been seen as resilient, having played a key role in the 2019 revolution. But these women are now suffering in silence and isolation, feeling forgotten and hopeless.

Our message to the international community is clear: stop talking about Sudanese women as symbols of inspiration and understand they now need support and protection. Those who’ve experienced sexual violence need immediate care, support and a sense of safety. They need accountability for the crimes committed against them, not political rhetoric and blame games. The international community must stop turning a blind eye to the suffering of Sudanese women and start treating this issue with the urgency it deserves.

 

This is an edited extract of our conversation with Sulaima. Read the full interview here.

Sexual violence as a weapon of war

Combatants have unleashed a wave of systematic sexual violence against women and girls, prompting the UN’s humanitarian chief to describe the situation as ‘not just a humanitarian crisis’ but ‘a crisis of humanity’.

Between April 2023 and February 2024 alone, health workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported treating 262 survivors of sexual violence, aged from nine to 60. These figures represent a small fraction of cases, as many survivors are unable or unwilling to seek help due to fear of reprisals, shame, stigma and lack of access to functioning health facilities.

Sexual violence is coming from all sides, but UN reports show that the RSF are the worst offenders. There’s an established pattern: RSF fighters systematically raid homes, gang-rape victims in front of family members, abduct women and girls, hold them in conditions amounting to sexual slavery and force them into marriage. While no woman can feel safe, violence against women also has a punitive dimension: women who played an active role in the 2019 revolution that toppled long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir are targeted, along with those who belong to particular ethnic groups.

The physical and psychological toll on survivors is devastating. Health workers report treating debilitating physical injuries, with some women dying from their wounds. Many survivors become pregnant through rape and struggle to get abortions.

Both warring parties severely hamper survivors’ access to critical care. The SAF has imposed a de facto blockade on medical supplies entering RSF-controlled areas of Khartoum since October 2023, while the RSF have looted medical supplies and occupied health facilities. Local health workers trying to help survivors have become targets themselves, facing intimidation, arbitrary arrest and sexual violence.

Because of the stigma associated with sexual violence, it’s common for survivors to be rejected by their families and communities. Survivors typically experience severe trauma symptoms, including post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, chronic fear, depression, sleep deprivation and suicidal thoughts. With mental health resources extremely limited some see no way out, with rising suicide rates among rape victims.

Even when they overcome the barriers of fear and shame, survivors find it extremely difficult to seek justice and challenge impunity due to the breakdown of law enforcement and judicial systems.

Civil society’s response

Several UN agencies have joined forces to support survivors of sexual violence. But they face many difficulties in delivering aid, so much of the work has fallen to local women’s organisations, whose deeper understanding of the local context and established community networks enable them to better circumvent restrictions and reach people in need.

Despite the dire security situation, limited resources and the near closure of civic space, women’s groups have responded by organising community watches, running safe houses, setting up clinics in refugee camps, creating informal education programmes for displaced girls and providing psychosocial support to rape survivors.

At the same time, they’re documenting and exposing human rights abuses and atrocities, researching the conflict’s impacts on women and girls, leading international advocacy campaigns and demanding accountability.

They’re calling for international support for local responders, unimpeded access to healthcare for survivors, independent targeted sanctions against those responsible for systematic sexual violence, investigations into atrocities and accountability for perpetrators. Forty-nine women-led organisations are pushing for the inclusion of women in peace negotiations.

Voices from the frontline

We spoke with a Sudanese women’s rights activist with extensive experience in peacebuilding who asked to stay anonymous for security reasons.

 

Sudan has become one of the most hostile environments in the world for civil society, which faces severe restrictions and unprecedented levels of violence, including attacks, arrests and detentions of activists. The conflict has devastated infrastructure, particularly in Khartoum, where many organisations were based. It has become almost impossible for humanitarian organisations to operate.

Traditional aid agencies, including those of the UN and large international civil society, are struggling to deliver aid due to severe government restrictions and obstructions imposed by both warring parties. In response, local grassroots groups – many led by young people and women – have stepped in.

Sudanese civil society has decades of experience in resisting dictatorship, and although the situation is unprecedented in terms of the level of violence and restrictions, it has responded. Emergency Response Rooms, which grew out of the Anti-Regime Resistance Committees, are playing a crucial role in delivering humanitarian aid. In many areas international agencies cannot reach, they have taken on the role of local authorities, providing essential services such as electricity, food and healthcare. Despite limited resources and in the worst of circumstances, their impact has been immense.

However, large-scale assistance is still needed. Sudan is experiencing the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, but remains largely ignored by the international community.

 

This is an edited extract of our conversation. Read the full interview here.

Foreign interests at play

As Sudan’s women and girls suffer, the conflict attracts few international headlines – but an array of foreign powers stand in the way of peace. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has extensive goldmining interests in Sudan, is the RSF’s main arms supplier. Iran supports the SAF. These dynamics leave the USA and other powerful western states saying little about the UAE’s role.

Russia also has extensive goldmining interests and initially sided with the RSF, before appearing to tilt towards the SAF. In June it abstained in a UN Security Council resolution calling on the RSF to end its siege of El Fasher, which it could have vetoed.

But on 18 November, Russia vetoed another Security Council resolution aimed at strengthening measures to protect civilians and improve humanitarian access. The resolution was supported by all other 14 Council members, including China, which expressed some concerns about Sudan’s sovereignty, as did Algeria and Mozambique, but they still voted in favour.

Russia justified its veto in the name of sovereignty – but mired in its own conflict, it has no interest in opening up the idea that warring parties ought to be held to account. These narrow calculations of national self-interest can be expected to keep playing out. States clearly place little importance on the rights and lives of Sudanese women and girls.

Voices from the frontline

We spoke with Hala Al-Karib, regional director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa.

 

The international community’s response to the atrocities in Sudan has been painfully slow and largely ineffective. There is an urgent need for real and decisive action. African countries and influential nations such as China and Russia, as well as emerging powers like Brazil, should use their diplomatic leverage to press for peace and justice in Sudan. Economic sanctions should be imposed on entities fuelling the conflict, particularly the UAE.

Global institutions, including the Security Council, must step up and hold accountable those responsible for the atrocities. The International Criminal Court should immediately prosecute RSF leaders and their allies implicated in genocide and war crimes.

Regional bodies such as the Economic Community of West African States and the African Union must play a more active role, particularly in controlling the flow of mercenaries from the Sahel to Sudan.

Finally, the international community must stand in solidarity with Sudanese civil society, amplifying its voices and supporting its efforts to achieve lasting peace, justice and democracy. This is not just about Sudan; it’s a global call to uphold human rights and prevent unchecked exploitation and violence in vulnerable regions.

 

This is an edited extract of our conversation with Hala. Read the full interview here.

The way forward

Sudan’s humanitarian and human rights crisis isn’t going to go away. It only threatens to worsen, and the targeting of women and girls is bound to create long-term challenges for recovery.

Effective humanitarian access is the first and most urgent need, and it requires a ceasefire. A lot of funding is also needed to enable a response on the right scale. The international community must support women-led organisations and initiatives and prioritise gender-sensitive humanitarian assistance, including gender-based violence services and targeted support to female-headed households facing acute food insecurity.

The international community must also work towards a peace agreement. Peace will only be sustainable if it results from genuine dialogue between all relevant groups, including Sudanese civil society in all its diversity – with women’s groups to the fore.

Evidence shows that when women are involved, peace agreements last longer and are better implemented. However, as the latest UN annual report on Women, Peace and Security points out, women currently make up only 9.6 per cent of negotiators in peace processes around the world.

Just as there are gender dimensions to conflict, there are gender dimensions to peace. The needs of Sudanese women and girls won’t be taken seriously unless women are empowered to play an effective role in peace negotiations and peacebuilding processes.

OUR CALLS FOR ACTION

  • The Sudanese government and warring forces must declare an immediate ceasefire and allow humanitarian access.
  • The international community must prioritise humanitarian aid tailored specifically to the needs of women and girls.
  • The international community must step up efforts to kickstart a peace process, ensuring accountability for atrocities and a central role for women’s organisations in peacebuilding.

For interviews or more information, please contact research@civicus.org

Cover photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images