The conflict in Sudan has greatly affected women and children, increasing the dangers of sexual violence and forcing many women and children to flee. There have been disturbing reports about women dying by suicide just to avoid being raped by armed militia.
Hala Al-Karib, the Regional Director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA), confirmed this in an interview on News Central’s programme Jasiri.
According to the International Organisation for Migration, over 14 million people fled their homes with hunger, disease and sexual violence rampant.
The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan has reported that paramilitaries are targeting the female population. The Chairman, Mohamed Chande Othman, highlighted the abduction of women and girls for sexual slavery, saying that there is no safe place in Sudan.
Hala Al-Karib said, “From the first day of the war, women have been sexually violated. There have been support forces. Militia has been entering homes in Khartoum, the capital, and they committed multiple and a large number of rape and sexual violence crimes, and it continues.
“But the truth is, sexual violence and rape in Sudan does not happen in a vacuum. It has been happening in the country for over 20 years in that world, yet it’s exacerbated and became much worse since the beginning of this war.
“Our body is being used as a war tool and as a weapon of war. And very true, the women in central Sudan, they have been committing suicide because they couldn’t bear the pain of gang rape and torture they are experiencing at the hand of the armed militia.”
She stated that various forms of war crimes are being perpetrated by the armed militia in Sudan. She discussed the devastating impact of the war on infrastructure and the mass genocide happening in the country.
“So there is all kinds of violence that is being committed against Sudanese civilians. You know, women and children, they are bearing the large part of it.
“Infrastructure has been destroyed, homes have been looted, markets have been completely destroyed, and civilians have been killed for no reason. Elders and people with disabilities have also been killed and jailed. So it’s quite a horrific situation.
“The latest cycles of atrocities that are happening right now in central Sudan between October 21st to date, as we are speaking, you know, is the fact that I think one of the RSF generals has surrendered to the Sudanese National Army, and that has very much upset the members of the militia and decided to carry an act of retaliation against the population that his faction of the militia was in control of.
“So they started, you know, slaughtering, literally, villagers and raping women, and those are really farming communities, fishermen communities. So, imagine the level of trauma that they are going through at the moment.
In April 2023, conflict erupted in the capital Khartoum between the Sudanese army, commanded by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as “Hemedti.”
The fighting swiftly extended to other regions of Sudan, especially Darfur to the west and Kordofan to the south. The instability in Sudan, a key nation linking the Sahel, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Red Sea, is likely to have effects that reach far beyond its borders.
Watch the full interview below.
