Sudan paramilitaries accused of sexual violence

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias, at war with the army, of committing widespread sexual violence in southern Sudan.

It is the latest such report by international monitors alleging sexual violence during Sudan’s 20-month war which has led to what the United States called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

In its new report, HRW said it had documented dozens of cases since September 2023 involving women and girls aged between seven and 50 who were subjected to sexual violence, including gang rape and sexual slavery, in South Kordofan state.

The latest details follow a separate report last week from the New York-based watchdog which more broadly accused the RSF and allied Arab militias of carrying out numerous abuses, mainly against ethnic Nuba civilians, in South Kordofan state from December 2023 to March 2024.

These attacks, it said, “had not been widely reported” and constituted “war crimes.”

Parts of South Kordofan and parts of Blue Nile state are controlled by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), a rebel group.

The SPLM-N faction led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu refused to join other Sudan rebels in signing a 2020 peace deal with the government, as Hilu sought a secular state as a prerequisite.

Many South Kordofan residents are members of Sudan’s Christian minority.

Hilu also at that time refused talks with RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, linking him with atrocities.

SPLM-N has clashed with both the army and RSF in parts of South Kordofan since April, 2023 when the war between the paramilitaries and Sudanese Armed Forces began, HRW said.

The conflict has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, internally displaced more than eight million, according to the UN, and forced more than three million others to seek safety in neighboring countries.

According to the HRW report, many of the victims were gang-raped at their or their neighbors’ homes, often in front of families while some were abducted and held in conditions of enslavement.

One survivor, a 35-year-old Nuba woman, described being gang-raped by six RSF fighters who stormed her family compound and killed her husband and son when they tried to intervene.