In mid-April 2023, Sudan entered a spiral of armed conflict between the two largest military components in the country, after a crisis between two generals whose old alliance turned into hostility, fighting, and street war that resulted in the death and injury of thousands and the displacement and displacement of millions, not to mention the spread of rape crimes against women in several Sudanese cities and villages.
“Five million and 800,000 people have been displaced due to the fighting, and we have witnessed serious violations by both sides of international humanitarian law and human rights,” says Jillian Keatley, Director of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Sudan.
She added, “Indiscriminate raids and bombing of densely populated areas led to a high number of civilian casualties and the targeting of hospitals and schools.”
Rape
Reports continued of women and girls being subjected to sexual violence at the hands of fighters, and there are accounts of family members being killed or raped, including a horrific testimony about a fifteen-year-old girl who was attacked, raped, and kidnapped away from her family.
While most victims refuse to report their rape for fear of reprisal or stigma, Duha, a pseudonym, agreed to speak freely on the condition that her identity and real name be hidden.
She says, “We were at home at night, hearing the sound of the beating (bombing) that we were accustomed to, and after a while the sound started getting louder. My sister (called Matab) and I hid under the bed.”
She said that she and her sister were raped in their home in Omdurman in the presence of their mother and younger brother a month after the fighting began.
She continued, “Three soldiers wearing rapid support uniforms entered us. One was searching the room, and the second lowered his head down and saw us (…) and then he pulled me by my legs and dragged me to the ground, and lifted me by my hair, and the second was looking at Mutab.”
She added, “He started looking at me. I spat in his face. Then he spit on me and threw me on the bed. I tried to resist him to no avail, before he hit me in the stomach (…) and after that I no longer felt anything.”
Doha is no exception
Doha’s case does not appear to be an exception or an exception, as Kitley says her team recorded 105 cases of sexual violence.
She added, “We have received widespread allegations of sexual violence against civilians since the outbreak of fighting in April 2023. I must say that in most documented cases, the perpetrators were identified as members of the Rapid Support Forces or individuals wearing the uniform of these forces.”
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights attributed 70 percent of confirmed incidents of sexual violence to fighters wearing the uniform of the Rapid Support Forces, and one incident among them was accused of committing a fighter wearing the uniform of the army forces.
Salima Ishaq, head of the Sudanese government unit to combat violence against women, says, “The existing cases, especially those related to home invasions, forced disappearances, or sexual slavery, are all, according to what the survivors reported, committed by people wearing the Rapid Support uniform.”
She continued, “The total number of cases registered with us is 136 cases of conflict-related sexual violence. They actually do not represent more than 2%, and there are many undocumented cases, because the method of reporting is difficult, in light of the interruption of communication or the deterioration of the security situation itself, and most cases may not “You reach health facilities and do not report.”
Reem Al-Salem, the UN expert on violence against women and girls, says that she was among a group of the organization’s experts who addressed the Rapid Support Forces to respond to these accusations.
She added, “The Rapid Support Forces gave us an answer, and they said that they would conduct a comprehensive and impartial investigation into every incident.”
The Rapid Support Forces deny these accusations, and Ahmed Abdeen, Hemedti’s media advisor, says, “We trust our forces, and we trust the leadership, and therefore we have seen such plays, and these clips on the media, and certainly none of our soldiers, our leaders, or their members have done such acts.” We are ready to investigate these actions by any neutral national committee, and we are ready to be investigated by any international committee, provided that the matter is neutral. I am sure that these committees will reach the true maker of these films.”
But Duha confirms, “My life has been destroyed (…) and my father does not know that he raped me and my sister, and I do not know how to live, and death is easier than this situation.”
In Darfur, rape is added to a broader list of violations and crimes that together may constitute potential genocide. So what happened in western Sudan?
Last December, Washington strongly condemned the “horrific acts of violence” in Sudan, saying that reports of human rights violations committed by the Rapid Support Forces were “credible.”
A US State Department spokesman said, “Victims and human rights groups have credibly accused members of the Rapid Support Forces and armed groups allied with them of committing rape and other forms of conflict-related sexual violence.”
Killed under blackout
Muhammad Othman, Sudan file researcher at Human Rights Watch, says: “Unofficial statistics confirm that 9,000 people were killed in the conflict in Khartoum alone. Access to the Internet is very difficult, and thus access to information from victims or others. This is a real challenge for organizations.”
To human rights activists, this obfuscation seemed deliberate by both sides of the conflict since the first day of the war.
“About 5.4 million people fled their homes and were displaced within Sudan, or to neighboring countries, at a rate of about 30,000 people per day, many of whom fled with nothing but their clothes. The displacement crisis has become exacerbated,” says Nkweta Salami, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan.
The battles between the army led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces led by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo (Hemedti) resulted in the deaths of more than 12,190 people, according to estimates by the Armed Conflict Locations and Events Data Project (ACLED), a toll believed to remain unchanged. Actual outcome.
So far, all negotiations seeking to end the war through Saudi, American, and African mediation have failed, while neither warring side has announced a complete military victory.
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2024-01-12 10:45:24
