Global Roundup: Sudan Paramilitary Targets Women & Girls, Trans Woman Sues Trump, Death Penalty in Iran is Feminist Issue, Menopause Policies in the U.S., Film on Poland's Abortion Dream Team

cw: rape, sexual violence

Members of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been subjecting women and girls to “horrific” sexual violence and gang rape, as part of their strategy in the country’s civil war, according to Amnesty International, a global rights group.

In a 30-page report published on Thursday, Amnesty accused the RSF of inflicting “widespread sexual violence … to humiliate, assert control and displace communities across the country”.

Since April 15, 2023, the RSF has been battling the Sudanese Armed Forces for control of the country, resulting in an armed conflict that has also given rise to what the United Nations described as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

While the military reclaimed the capital, Khartoum, last month, the country remains essentially divided into two.

Both forces led the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir in 2019. Two years later, in 2021, they joined forces again to remove a transitional government. They split in April 2023, igniting the current civil war.

The RSF’s atrocities, including rape, gang-rape and sexual slavery, amount to war crimes and possible crimes against humanity. The RSF’s assaults on Sudanese women and girls are sickening, depraved and aimed at inflicting maximum humiliation. -Amnesty

Deprose Muchena, a senior Amnesty official for regional human rights impact, said that the RSF targeted civilians, particularly women and girls, “with unimaginable cruelty during this war”.

Amnesty documented at least 36 cases of women and girls as young as 15 being subjected by RSF forces to rape, gang rape and other forms of sexual violence.

The attacks were committed in four Sudanese states from April 2023 to October 2024.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people and, according to the UN, displaced about 12 million more.

Amnesty has urged the international community “to stop the RSF’s atrocities by stemming the flow of weapons into Sudan, pressuring the leadership to end sexual violence, and holding perpetrators including top commanders to account”.

Survivors said anyone who resisted rape risked beatings, torture and other ill-treatment, or murder, including an 11-year-old boy who an RSF soldier beat to death as he tried to help his mother.

The horror of the RSF’s sexual violence is overwhelming, but the cases documented among refugees represent a small fraction of the violations the RSF has likely committed. The RSF’s attacks on civilians are shameful and cowardly, and any countries supporting the RSF, including by supplying them with weapons, shares in their shame. -Deprose Muchena

Amensty International said that victims and survivors lack both health care and justice.

No survivors accessed timely post-rape care or reported attacks to Sudanese authorities due to ongoing fighting or fear of stigma and reprisals. Some suffer kidney pains, irregular periods, walking difficulties or long-term psychological trauma. Children who saw relatives raped suffer nightmares.

As refugees, all survivors said their priority was to get medical treatment for injuries and diseases inflicted by the RSF or for health conditions developed in their captivity. However, cuts to vital USAID-funded programmes have diminished prospects for accessing comprehensive sexual health care.

Survivors also demanded justice and accountability.

Women are not leading or participating in this war, but it is women who are suffering the most. I want the whole world to know about the suffering of Sudanese women and girls and ensure that all the bad men who raped us are punished. -A woman raped in Omdurman

As Neha Wadekar writes in her report, The Long Road to Justice for Sexual War Crimes, sexual violence in Sudan is common. accountability isn’t.

The international response to the suffering of Sudanese women and girls has been reprehensible. The world has failed to protect civilians, provide sufficient humanitarian aid or hold perpetrators accountable for these crimes. It’s time for people and governments around the world to establish the truth of what has happened in Sudan, bring suspected perpetrators to justice and provide reparations and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care to survivors. -Deprose Muchena