Briefly
- Médecins Sans Frontières has warned that sexual abuse is getting used as a weapon of conflict in Sudan.
- Practically 3,400 survivors of sexual violence had been handled in its services in Darfur between January 2024 and November 2025.
This text accommodates references to rape and sexual assault.
Sexual abuse is getting used as a weapon of conflict in Sudan, with ladies and ladies fleeing the battle describing rape and torture as they attempt to attain security.
A brand new report from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) — recognized in English as Docs With out Borders — has discovered sexual violence in opposition to ladies and ladies is widespread in Darfur.
The humanitarian organisation mentioned 3,396 victims and survivors of sexual violence had been handled in its supported services in North and South Darfur between January 2024 and November 2025.
It warned that the instances reaching its clinics had been solely a fraction of the true determine.
Myriam Laroussi, MSF emergency coordinator, mentioned the violence was not incidental and girls’s our bodies had been getting used as a part of the conflict.
“We at the moment are calling [on] all of the fighters to only cease. Cease utilizing ladies’s our bodies to battle this conflict,” she mentioned.
Survivors in Darfur have described gang rape, rape at gunpoint and extreme bodily violence, typically whereas making an attempt to flee assaults or attain security.
MSF stories ladies and ladies made up 97 per cent of these handled in documented instances.
‘Crime in opposition to humanity’
MSF’s warning has been echoed by the United Nations human rights chief, Volker Turk.
“I met 9 ladies and ladies, all of them survivors of sexual violence, they usually instructed me horrific tales. I’ve by no means seen so traumatised people,” he mentioned.
“What they instructed me was a few gang rape in Al-Fasher. Once they tried to flee, they instructed me concerning the males being taken out and killed in entrance of them.”
The trauma that they’ve gone via is unspeakable.
“Sexual violence is used as a weapon of warfare. It is a conflict crime, and it is a crime in opposition to humanity,” Turk mentioned.
The violence shouldn’t be confined to sexual assaults.
The UN human rights workplace mentioned drone warfare has intensified sharply this yr, and that greater than 500 civilians had been killed in drone strikes between January and March.
Laroussi mentioned assaults had been close to day by day, and civilians had been being hit in locations that must be secure.
“We’re speaking about college, we’re speaking about well being construction, we’re speaking about markets,” he mentioned.
The humanitarian toll is immense.
As much as 14 million Sudanese have been displaced because the conflict started in April 2023, Laroussi mentioned, with many pressured to flee their houses greater than as soon as.
Many survivors have needed to journey for days to succeed in care in Tawila, in North Darfur, with many arriving after fleeing El Fasher and different battle zones.
‘Peak of the iceberg’
MSF midwife Gloria Endreo mentioned many ladies solely start talking as soon as they had been someplace secure sufficient to take action.
“I occurred to come across so many instances of survivors coming to open up to me for what has occurred to them throughout the time they flee from El Fasher to Uganda,” she mentioned.
She mentioned many ladies instructed her that they had seen killings and brutality on the highway to security.
“Loads of them witnessed brutality, bodily torture, psychological torture, gang rapes and raped underneath gunpoint,” she mentioned.
“This takes a robust power for one to face up and say ‘ABCD has occurred to me’, contemplating the group that they reside in, it’s a very conservative group, the place speaking about sexuality is taken into account as a taboo.”
MSF mentioned many survivors arrive after the primary 72 hours, which well being staff think about the vital window for emergency care after rape, together with remedy for accidents, prevention of an infection and pressing medical help.
Sudan’s battle started on 15 April 2023, when an influence wrestle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Speedy Assist Forces erupted into combating.
Since then, the conflict has unfold far past Khartoum, devastating Darfur and different areas, and exposing civilians to ethnic violence, starvation, displacement and repeated assaults on houses, hospitals and markets.
MSF mentioned the instances it has documented are solely the seen portion of a a lot bigger disaster.
“The info that we’ve are very centered on North Darfur and South Darfur. Now, the truth we all know, is much greater than that,” Laroussi mentioned.
“[It is the] peak of the iceberg.”
Worldwide investigators are additionally analyzing what is occurring in Darfur.
The Worldwide Felony Court docket instructed the UN Safety Council in January that it was simple that sexual violence was being dedicated.
Should you or somebody you understand is impacted by sexual assault, name 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, textual content 0458 737 732, or go to 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, name 000.
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