HRW Documents RSF’ Abuses Against Women in South Kordofan
Moatinoon
Human Rights Watch stated that fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias raped dozens of women and girls, including cases of sexual slavery, in Sudan’s South Kordofan state since September 2023. The organization called for serious international action to protect civilians and ensure justice for these acts of sexual violence, which constitute war crimes and may amount to crimes against humanity.
According to a report released today, a 35-year-old Nubian woman recounted how six RSF fighters, wearing khaki uniforms, stormed her family home. One of the men said, "You Nubian, today is your day." The men then gang-raped her. She said, “My husband and son tried to defend me, but one of the RSF fighters shot and killed them. Then, all six of them continued to rape me.”
In October 2024, the organization conducted interviews with 93 individuals, both in person and remotely. Seventy of them were in informal displacement camps in the Nuba Mountains area of South Kordofan, currently under the control of the armed group Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N). Researchers interviewed seven rape survivors, one of whom reported being detained with 50 other women and repeatedly raped over three months. Human Rights Watch also spoke with 12 individuals who said their relatives or friends had been raped, many of them eyewitnesses to the incidents.
Victims and other witnesses provided information about 79 girls and women, aged between 7 and 50 years, who reported being raped. Most documented incidents involved gang rapes occurring since December 31, 2023, in and around the town of Habila, at an RSF base, and in the village of Fayou, about 17 kilometers south of Habila in South Kordofan.
The victims and witnesses reported that the perpetrators were all members of the RSF in uniform or affiliated militias. Some survivors identified their attackers by name as people from their communities. In cases documented by Human Rights Watch, RSF fighters raped 14 women and girls in their homes or neighbors’ houses, often in the presence of family members. In five cases, the attackers raped the women and girls after killing or threatening their relatives.
In a separate report published on December 10, the organization documented widespread killings, abductions, injuries among civilians, and extensive looting and burning in Habila, Fayou, and surrounding areas. It described these violations and acts of sexual violence as evidence of large-scale attacks by the RSF on civilians in South Kordofan.
Human Rights Watch stated that these findings align with a recent report by the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan, which concluded that the RSF is perpetrating widespread sexual violence, including numerous cases of sexual slavery. The organization had previously documented the rape of dozens of women and girls by the RSF in Darfur in 2023, as well as widespread conflict-related sexual violence by the RSF and, to a lesser extent, by the Sudanese Armed Forces in Khartoum and nearby cities since the outbreak of fighting between the two forces in April 2023.
