Survivors fight to heal from rampant sexual violence in the war-torn Sudan

Thousands of Sudanese women face sexual violence in war, but centres like Aman offer refuge and support for survivors.

When a fighter from Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) stormed into Aisha’s family home in Khartoum and gave her a grim ultimatum — marry him or watch her father die — she did not think twice. She signed away her freedom, “terrified for my father’s life,” she said.

For a year, the 22-year-old was trapped alone in a house just streets away from her family where she was raped, regularly beaten and eventually suffered a miscarriage.

“I was completely broken,” the former IT student recalled, her voice barely audible.

Ms. Aisha, using a pseudonym for her safety, is one of the estimated thousands of Sudanese women who have been subjected to sexual violence since the war between the Army and the RSF erupted in April 2023.

A government unit tasked with combating sexual violence against women has documented 1,138 cases since the war began.

But the head of the unit, Sulaima Ishaq al-Khalifa, said that number is “only 10%” of the real figure.

International watchdogs have accused the RSF of using systematic sexual violence, including rape, sexual slavery and forced marriages, as a weapon of war.