In Sudan, war is waged on women’s bodies with impunity

Hala Alkarib is a Sudanese activist and writer and regional director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa, a grassroots feminist network.

Throughout Sudan's history, civilian and military leaders have used women's bodies to wage war and attain political gains. They have benefited politically from the anguish that women and civilians have experienced, and they have engineered myopic deals between military and civilian elites that have failed to solve impunity and accountability concerns.

Sudan will continue to perpetuate its cycle of conflicts and horrors unless the damages and extent of violations inflicted on women, girls and communities are addressed.

As a result, it is not surprising that sexual violence has emerged as a central issue in the terrible fighting that began on April 15, 2023.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war, with researchers in Britain and Sudan saying this month that the toll from the devastating conflict is significantly higher than previously recorded.

More than 14 million people have also been forced to leave their homes. Records of sexual violence may also number in the hundreds of thousands.

Even before this latest bout of fighting broke out last year, more than 3 million women and girls in Sudan were at risk of gender-based violence, including intimate-partner violence, according to UN estimates. By last July, the number had climbed to an estimated 4.2 million people.

The WHO's estimates are extremely close to reality now. Sexual violence has been on the rise since the first day of the war, when the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the armed militia leading the conflict against the Sudanese armed forces (SAF), took control of the capital Khartoum.

It is vital to recognise that the exploitation of the bodies of women and civilians as weapons of war in Sudanese politics predates the reign of former president Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in a coup in 2019.

The Sudanese political sector has always promoted a culture of violence and impunity, notably in terms of sexual violence, as part of power dynamics. Since 1987, Sudan's authorities, citizens, and military elites have committed atrocities against the inhabitants of the Nuba Mountains, paving the way for Bashir to use brutality against civilians and sexual violence in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan.

This use of violence continues uninterrupted until the present day.

Sudan was a story of hope and inspiration five years ago, with the overthrow of Bashir's administration; nevertheless, the story was not as optimistic as it appeared.

Bashir, who ruled Sudan for 30 years, relied on internal conflicts to maintain his power. He passed a slew of laws that dehumanised women and effectively criminalised victims of sexual violence, formalising a long-standing culture of impunity.

Today, violence has transformed my country, trapping my people between a weak and complicit army leadership and a formidable armed militia with international and regional connections.

The RSF grew out of Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, that helped Sudan's army crush a rebellion in Darfur in the 2000s. Today, in Sudan, sexual violence and the killing of hundreds of thousands of women, boys, and men has become a way of life.

A litany of abuses

The survivors of sexual violence receive little to no assistance, and their suffering is not acknowledged. The 2023 massacre in El Geneina in West Darfur has left hundreds of women and teenage girls, as well as their communities, suffering from physical agony, injuries, and trauma.

Since the start of the war, many Sudanese women and young girls have committed suicide as a result of sexual violence.

In Gezeira state, central Sudan, reports of women committing suicide by drowning themselves in the Nile have spread across social media.

My colleagues and I were able to corroborate two examples of women drinking local hair dye after being raped by RSF fighters in front of their male family members in one of Gezira's villages, as well as four cases of women who drowned themselves in the Nile.

We discovered that gang rapes represent more than 90% of cases of sexual violence. I've had conversations with women who have been gang raped by more than 12 males.

We have also received reports of trafficking, sexual slavery, and forced work. We identified the offenders in almost 85% of the incidents as members of the RSF armed group.

Other suspects were identified as members of armed organisations and the Sudanese armed forces and others. However, according to our findings, the RSF uses rape in the most systemic way.

The problems and needs in Sudan outweigh the aid and services given. Insecurity and a lack of funds make it difficult to provide humanitarian support, particularly to women and children.

Victims of sexual violence have limited resources to recuperate and reconstruct their lives. Sudanese civil society has pushed for civilian protection since the start of the war but this has not happened. It seems the donor community is not listening.

According to Sudanese organisations working against gender violence, many infants have been born as a result of rape, with the majority being abandoned. Many eyewitnesses from the south of Khartoum said that RSF fighters either sold children and newborns to the city's few remaining residents or abandoned them to perish on the streets.

These aspects of the war are unlikely to be discussed in any eventual peace negotiations, but if they remain hidden the violence will continue. I sincerely hope that this time around, it won't be business as usual and that accountability, protection, and acknowledging what Sudanese women and men have experienced will be front-and-centre during any political process.