Sudan: UN Fact-Finding Mission documents large-scale sexual violence and other human rights violations in newly issued report

GENEVA – Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, who have been fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces in the country’s ongoing conflict, are responsible for committing sexual violence on a large scale in areas under their control, including gang-rapes and abducting and detaining victims in conditions that amount to sexual slavery, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan said in a new detailed report today.

The report, which expands on the Fact-Finding Mission’s first report to the Human Rights Council in September, highlights the imperatives of protecting civilians in Sudan, concluding that there are reasonable grounds to believe that these acts amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, including of torture, rape, sexual slavery, and persecution on intersecting ethnic and gender grounds.

While the report also documented cases involving the SAF and allied armed groups, identifying areas requiring further investigation, it found that the majority of rape and sexual and gender-based violence was committed by the RSF - in particular in Greater Khartoum, and Darfur and Gezira States - was part of a pattern aimed at terrorizing and punishing civilians for perceived links with opponents and suppressing any opposition to their advances.

“The sheer scale of sexual violence we have documented in Sudan is staggering”, said Mohamed Chande Othman, Chair of the Fact-Finding Mission. “The situation faced by vulnerable civilians, in particular women and girls of all ages, is deeply alarming and needs urgent address.”

This sexual violence against women – including rape, gang-rape, sexual exploitation, and abduction for sexual purposes as well as allegations of enforced marriages and human trafficking for sexual purposes across borders – occurred mostly in the context of invasions of cities and towns, attacks on displacement sites or civilians fleeing conflict-affected areas, and during the prolonged occupation of urban areas.

In Darfur, acts of sexual violence were committed with particular cruelty with firearms, knives and whips to intimidate or coerce the victims while using derogatory, racist or sexist slurs and death threats. Many victims – often targeted on the basis of their gender and real or perceived ethnicity – were simultaneously beaten, sometimes with sticks, or lashed. These acts of violence often took place in front of family members, who were also under threat. Men and boys were also reportedly targeted while in detention with sexual violence, including rape, threats of rape, forced nudity and beating on the genitals, requiring further investigation.

The Fact-Finding Mission found reasonable grounds to believe that rape and other forms of sexual violence committed by the RSF and its allied militias amount to violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. These include violence to life and person, in particular torture and other cruel, inhuman degrading treatment or punishment, outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, rape and any form of indecent assault.

The abduction, confinement and detention of women and girls for sexual purposes, including rape and sexual exploitation constituted conditions whereby the RSF exercised powers of ownership over the victims - whose liberty they also deprived - amount to prohibited acts of sexual slavery.

“These women, girls, boys and men in Sudan who are increasingly exposed to sexual and gender-based violence need protection,” said Expert Member Joy Ngozi Ezeilo. “Without accountability the cycle of hatred and violence will carry on. We must put a halt to impunity and bring perpetrators to account.”

The Fact-Finding Mission’s report also provides a more detailed description of numerous other violations of human rights and international humanitarian law and related crimes, noting they are increasing by the day. A quarter of Sudan’s population is displaced or has fled to neighboring countries, and the vast majority is vulnerable and exposed to gross violations and abuses, including sexual violence. 

The impact of these crimes has also been aggravated by the fact that victims of rape and other forms of sexual violence have very few places to turn to for medical attention, medicine and psycho-social support since many medical facilities have been destroyed, looted or occupied by the warring parties. Victims of sexual violence and their family members also endure high levels of stigma, victim-blaming and shame.

“The responsibility and shame for these heinous acts should be placed solely on the perpetrators,” said Expert Member Mona Rishmawi. “Unless the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court is expanded to cover all Sudan and an independent judicial mechanism working in tandem and complementarity with the ICC is established, the perpetrators of these crimes will continue to rip through Sudan causing terror and havoc.”

“These circumstances also make it abundantly clear that victims need urgent support, including medical and legal assistance, which is completely lacking in Sudan,” Rishmawi said. “A dedicated victim’s support and reparations office to assist them should be established now.”

The ongoing situation of high levels of violence against civilians in Sudan also underscores the need for urgent protection of civilians. “Ways must be found to create conditions for the immediate deployment of an independent protection force,” said Othman. “There is no safe place in Sudan now.”

Read the new detailed report here.

Background:  The Human Rights Council established the Fact-Finding Mission in October 2023, through resolution A/HRC/RES/54/2, “to investigate and establish the facts, circumstances and root causes of all alleged human rights violations and abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, including those committed against refugees, and related crimes in the context of the ongoing armed conflict that began on 15 April 2023, between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, as well as other warring parties.” Led by Chairman Mohamed Chande Othman and fellow experts Joy Ngozi Ezeilo and Mona Rishmawi, its mandate was extended until October 2025.

More information on the work of the Fact-Finding Mission can be found here. 

For media queries, please contact: Todd Pitman, Media Adviser - Investigative Missions, todd.pitman@un.org / (+41) 76 691 1761 or Pascal Sim, Human Rights Council Media Officer, at simp@un.org.