Alti Tasta
Nesrin said she saw the men also gang rape her neighbors’ daughters, aged 13 and 15. Human Rights Watch previously found that Sudanese men and boys have also been subjected to sexual violence, including in detention. Intisar, 27, said once the fighting was over and the RSF was in control of Habila, a group of armed RSF fighters, all but one in beige uniform, came to their street. The man in civilian clothes entered Intisar’s compound, where he trained his gun on her and raped her in front of her mother and her father-in-law. The UN and AU should urgently deploy a mission to protect civilians in Sudan, mandated and resourced to address sexual violence, including prevention, documentation, and provision of comprehensive services to all survivors. UN member states should also bolster support for the UN fact-finding mission, as the secretary-general recommended, to help pave the way toward meaningful accountability.
- In a separate report published on December 10, Human Rights Watch documented large-scale killings, abductions, and injuries of civilians, as well as widespread looting and burning, in and around Habila and Fayu.
- One fighter told her husband, “You Nuba, we will pluck your eyes out,” as three of the men grabbed Sara’s 16-year-old niece and shoved her into a bedroom, while the fourth blocked the door.
- Human Rights Watch previously found that men and boys have also been subjected to sexual violence, including in detention.
- On December 31, 2023, the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, launched an attack on Habila and other towns and villages in Sudan’s South Kordofan state.
- Human Rights Watch documented that RSF fighters killed at least 56 civilians and unarmed soldiers, and raped 79 women and girls, although the true figures are likely far higher.
- Two men raped each of them and then told them to leave or else they would be killed, and then left.
Dirty Confession Time
Human Rights Watch also interviewed 12 people who said their relatives or friends were raped, in many cases in incidents they personally witnessed. Researchers spoke to four healthcare workers, including medical workers, working in facilities providing care to victims of sexual violence who said they were able to test for syphilis and gonorrhoea, which have high rates in the population, as well as pregnancy and chlamydia. Only one hospital in the Nuba Mountains is able to test for HIV, they said. When asked whether survivors could access abortion services, healthcare workers interviewed said access was not available. On January 2, Selma, 30, said she saw four RSF fighters in beige uniform storm her next-door neighbor’s compound. Through the fence between the homes, Selma saw the men put guns to the heads of two sisters, both about 30 years old.
Zahra said in September 2023, during one such incursion, she saw groups of RSF fighters enter the town on motorbikes and attack the town’s SAF base. During the attack, she saw two fighters enter her next-door neighbor’s compound and rape her neighbor’s daughter, a 10-year-old girl. In total, the survivors and other witnesses provided information about 79 girls and women, between the ages of 7 and 50, who reported being raped. Most incidents documented were gang rapes that occurred since December 31, 2023, in and around the town of Habila, and at an RSF base, also involving victims from the town of Fayu, approximately 17 kilometers south of Habila, in South Kordofan. The acts of sexual violence and the killings which the women described are war crimes, and may constitute crimes against humanity. Hasina said groups of fighters came to her house and gang raped her on a near daily basis for the next month, until the SPLM-N took control of Habila, after which she fled.
Leave No Girl Behind in Africa
An 18-year-old woman said that in February, RSF fighters took her and 17 other women and girls from Fayu to a military base where they were detained with a group of 33 women and girls already there. Under the total control of their RSF captors, the women and girls were held in conditions of enslavement, at times even chained together. On a daily basis for three months, the fighters raped and beat the women and girls, including the 18-year-old survivor, crimes that also constitute sexual slavery. (Nairobi, December 16, 2024) – Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters and allied militias have raped scores of women and girls, including in the context of sexual slavery, in Sudan’s South Kordofan state since September 2023, Human Rights Watch said today. These acts of sexual violence, which constitute war crimes and may constitute crimes against humanity, underscore the urgent need for meaningful international action to protect civilians and deliver justice.
The fighters drove away with Hania, her neighbor, and 16 other girls she knew, aged 11 and above, in about 10 vehicles. Another Fayu resident said she saw RSF fighters taking groups of women and girls, including Hania, away that morning. The sexual violence inflicted on the women and girls, held in conditions of enslavement in the camp constitutes sexual slavery. Access to abortion care is a human right, and under international human rights law, states should provide effective access to abortion care in cases of sexual violence including rape, and remove barriers that prevent women exercising their right to access abortion under the law.
Sudan: Fighters Rape Women and Girls, Hold Sex Slaves
Hania said she and Fawzia eventually found their families and sought medical care. Doctors said Hania was malnourished, but her baby did not experience health problems at birth. She is not aware of what happened to the women and girls who remained at the base in Dibeibat. Human Rights Watch documented that RSF fighters killed at least 56 civilians and unarmed soldiers, and raped 79 women and girls, although the true figures are likely far higher. The RSF, which is fighting against the national military, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), for control of the country, has also engaged in hostilities with the SPLM-N. Researchers interviewed seven survivors of rape, including one who said she was held with 50 other women and raped repeatedly over three months.
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Hania said she heard fighters in Dibeibat say that other groups of women and girls were held at two other known RSF bases in the region. Another woman from the Fayu area, Jamila, 22, said RSF fighters who detained her on a farm for 15 days near Fayu in January threatened to take her to Dibeibat on multiple occasions. An RSF fighter eventually took pity on the two pregnant women and helped them escape three months after they were abducted and one and a half months after they had been chained up.
- Only one case has been brought to trial, that of a former Janjaweed militia leader, Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman (Ali Kosheib).
- They should also condemn the RSF’s looting of aid and medical supplies.
- The man in civilian clothes entered Intisar’s compound, where he trained his gun on her and raped her in front of her mother and her father-in-law.
“Khartoum is not Safe for Women!”
She was raped daily for three months by numerous RSF fighters, until she one day she was able to escape. All of the survivors interviewed said that they find it difficult to fall asleep and are haunted by flashbacks. They all also said they experience daily physical pain, particularly in their backs, which they had not had before the attacks. The UN secretary-general and Security Council members should press warring parties to end the ongoing willful obstruction of humanitarian supplies and personnel, including by immediately lifting ongoing bureaucratic restrictions. They should also condemn the RSF’s looting of aid and medical supplies.
For more details on Human Rights Watch’s new evidence of sexual violence, please see below. RSF fighters abducted this young woman at gunpoint from her home in Habila. “As they raped us, they said to each other, ‘These Nuba are our slaves, we can do anything we want,’” Dana said. International Criminal Court (ICC) judges have issued a number of arrest warrants in cases arising out of the court’s investigation into crimes committed in Darfur during the 2000s. These include warrants against former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who remains an ICC fugitive. Only one case has been brought to trial, that of a former Janjaweed militia leader, Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman (Ali Kosheib).
On December 31, 2023, the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, launched an attack on Habila and other towns and villages namecoin price prediction in Sudan’s South Kordofan state. “I have a lot of thoughts while I sleep. I remember all my family members. I wish our dad was still here because he provided for us, and we would feel safe and loved. Now they are gone, my heart is full of sadness.”
One fighter told her husband, “You Nuba, we will pluck your eyes out,” as three of the men grabbed Sara’s 16-year-old niece and shoved her into a bedroom, while the fourth blocked the door. When Hania once resisted a fighter trying to rape her, “he started beating me with a whip with a metal tip,” she said. “Two other men came and helped him beat me.” Hania bled heavily and ended up in the hospital for 20 days, after which a fighter, who she said was a commander, brought her back to the base and chained her up again. Other pockets of South Kordofan are under the control of the SAF, while the RSF controls the town of Dibeibat and its surroundings. The RSF has allied with predominantly Arab militias and has brutalized certain ethnic groups including the Massalit and the Nuba, by killing, injuring, torturing, detaining, and raping civilians from these communities, destroying their homes, and looting their possessions.
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Closing statements in the case were made to the ICC between December 11-13, 2024. The international community should do more to ensure those responsible are held accountable. The United Nations and the African Union should urgently deploy a mission to protect civilians. RSF fighters were quick to defeat the Sudanese Armed Forces in the area.
The six women said doctors told them all they were “fine” after examining them. In almost all cases, the women said doctors gave them some kind of medication before discharging them, though they were unsure of what kind. In two cases, doctors took urine and blood samples, but did not explain clearly what they were testing for, the women said. I cannot finish even simple tasks … After all the killing, the bloodshed, and what I witnessed, I don’t think I will be well. They made a pen-like setup with wires and tree branches, like the one they keep animals in. If we needed to go to the toilet, they set us free for only one minute, not enough time to do anything, you just got this minute, you needed to run going and coming back.
Finally, three men in beige uniforms came with motorbikes and carts and took away both girls and a woman, 19, none of whom Hania saw again. On the morning of December 31, 2023, after hostilities that led to the RSF taking control of the town of Habila from the SAF, RSF fighters and affiliated Arab gunmen moved between the compounds of primarily Nuba families. They killed many civilians, raped women and girls, and looted families’ possessions, including tractors, carts, money, jewelry, and furniture. Hania, 18, said the RSF attacked Fayu one night in February, when it was under the control of the SPLM-N. RSF fighters entered Hania’s home and grabbed her along with a 17-year-old girl who was her neighbor. One fighter said, “We have lost many of our children, we need to replace them.” Others cheered, shouting, “Free wedding,” and shot live rounds into the air.
None of the survivors were able to seek medical support immediately after they were raped because they were forced to flee the area or continued to be held in conditions of enslavement. Once they arrived in towns where they felt safer, six of the seven survivors interviewed sought medical care. Jamila, whom RSF fighters detained on a farm near Fayu, said she escaped after 15 days and fled to Qardud, a nearby village. After the third attack, Jamila, the other women, and the girl together fled to SPLM-N controlled territory, where they parted ways. Human Rights Watch in 2017 documented the obstruction of humanitarian assistance during the conflict in the Nuba Mountains by both the SAF and the SPLM-N, including preventing women and girls from accessing reproductive health care, including emergency obstetric care. Human Rights Watch previously found that men and boys have also been subjected to sexual violence, including in detention.
