In this personal essay, Hala Alkarib talks about the documentation of sexual violence by military forces in Sudan.
Hala is the regional director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA Network). SIHA is a network of grassroots women’s groups throughout the greater Horn of Africa. Its primary focus is on addressing violence against women and girls and promoting justice and accountability for victims and survivors. SIHA collaborates with its members to implement social protection programs and invest in women’s leadership at all levels.
The crimes of sexual violence in Sudan during the April 2023 war were beyond dreadful. Since that time, my work and that of my colleagues became increasingly focused on documenting and responding to ongoing crimes against women and girls. We soon found ourselves engulfed in a conflict, with sexual violence emerging as a central pattern. We documented and reacted to situations involving female children as young as six years old and women over the age of 65. On a personal note, female friends and acquaintances have reported rapes against their daughters and sisters. Elder women in my family above the age of 80 were terrorised, insulted, and humiliated in their communities and houses. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has perpetrated the most systemic pattern of rape,femicide and violence against women across the country; it has always been gang rape, with a minimum of three men and a maximum of seven men raping one woman. In a few cases, we have documented women being raped by twelve men. The pattern is not limited to one place; it can be seen throughout Sudan.
Rape frequently occurs inside the home, followed by the shooting of male relatives if they resist. Poor and working women who are forced to be visible in RSF-controlled areas are either raped on the side of the road, such as women street vendors, or, in the case of health workers, raped inside hospitals or abducted and taken to RSF-occupied homes, where they are subjected to gang rape and torture for days on end. Women who resist and fight back are often killed.
After hearing survivors‘ testimonies, we sometimes suspect male relatives were raped, though this is hard to prove. Navigating the culture of shame and encouraging female victims to speak out has been and will continue to be a huge challenge. I believe Sudanese men who were victimised will take decades to be able to speak about their experience with the sexual violence as part of Sudan War. The fact that there is no mental health and medical support allocated for survivors always makes it extremely complex for victims to speak up.
However, this focus on RSF does not exclude other warring groups from committing rape. We witnessed women and boys being raped, wrongfully jailed, and tortured by Sudanese armed forces (SAF) personnel, Darfur armed groups, and the Sudan People Liberation Army (SPLA) North. However, it is not as systematic or widespread as the violence perpetrated by the RSF‘, which usually begins inside women’s and families‘ homes, yards, and bedrooms.
The weapon of denial
During the height of the armed war and massive displacement in 2006, I paid my first visit to Darfur, which was home to one-third of Sudan’s 40 million people. Darfur has a long history of oppression and exploitation, and the people now battle to preserve the region’s cultural identity and natural resources.
After a large number of displaced persons arrived, the Balial hamlet in south Darfur eventually expanded into a large camp for internally displaced people. A small girl about my daughter’s age, maybe 6 or 7 years old at the time, told me that she was kidnapped by the Janjaweed and raped. Looking at tiny girls, women, and young women, I saw nothing but myself in there, that little girl could easily be my own child, and this mother in such misery could be me.
Conflict-related sexual violence is a political crime, but sexual violence against Sudanese women and young girls is deeply personal to me. Women have been victimized and violated for decades as a result of the complicity and discriminatory nature of our subsequent ruling regimes, which continue to disregard issues of equal citizenship and women’s rights, allowing for frequent prevalence of this heinous crime that is devastating our communities and social fabric. I believe that as long as we ignore sexual violence crimes, and neglect accountability and justice, Sudan will continue to be trapped in this cycles of violence.
After seeing what I saw in Darfur, I was presenting a paper on sexual violence and the stories of women and little girls in 2008 at an international platform attended by many Sudanese. The most common reaction to my statement was denial, with Sudanese elites even accusing me of lying. Despite this, I wanted to be heard, but no one would listen to a woman talking about women. „The women you mentioned are liars,“ they replied.
Hostility and denial of my voice escalated to the point where I experienced personal harassment. A prominent Sudanese politician who claimed to be secular and anti-Al Bashir approached me at one point and clearly told me that I was lying and that I didn’t understand that women in Darfur willingly engage in sexual activities with Janjaweed and Sudanese army soldiers. At that point, I felt like I was being raped, that everything I saw, heard, and experienced alongside hundreds of victims had been ignored. I felt victimized, but like all of the women I worked with, I had to stand up, survive, and continue the struggle.
The escalation of violence and ongoing denial
More than ten years later, the prevalence of rape had skyrocketed, infiltrating every corner of the country, as it was never acknowledged or taken seriously.
By 2019, Sudan had seen one of its most important uprisings against Al Bashir’s brutality and oppression, as well as the Sudanese Islamist dictatorship. Women were at the vanguard, accounting for around 60% of the demonstrators. For only a few weeks, we felt joyful and robust. However, the Sudan protests were crushed; demonstrators were slain and brutalized in central Khartoum. The RSF and remnants of Al-Bashir’s security apparatus aggressively attacked Sudanese women and men youth who were organizing a sit-in in front of the army headquarters in Khartoum. The Sudanese armed forces closed their gates, drove the protestors away, and allowed the RSF to conduct a murdering and rape campaign in central Khartoum.
Over 200 demonstrators were slain, and more than 100 were raped, including men, boys, and many women. Since then, the situation has deteriorated, and sexual violence against women has increased throughout Sudan. An unstable transitional executive government, as well as insufficient security and accountability measures, has compromised women’s peace, security, and access to justice, which are increasingly being disregarded. After the RSF and SAF overthrew Sudan’s transitional government in October 2021, women protested alongside men in the capital Khartoum. However, women protesters continued to face gang rape on the roadside, with soldiers telling them they were raped because they dared to protest. .
Sexual Violence since 2023
Since April 15, 2023, the RSF has escalated its brutality against women. In addition to gang rape, enforced abduction, and slavery of women, as well as acts of torture, women have been slaughtered in the most horrific manner possible, demonstrating hatred and dehumanization of women. Just two months after the war, I was deeply saddened by RSF brutality against women when a young mother, Neimat Ahmed, was looking for food for her children in Al Mawrda market, as she encountered RSF men, who were harassing her. When she rejected their advancement and attempt to take her with them, they dragged her to the main road and executed her. The residents of Al Mawrda witnessed her murder and were unable to intervene. They waited for them to leave before collecting her ID and her children’s IDs and burying her. These types of cases of femicides are quite common during Sudan war where women are often executed by hanging, or shot at or being gang-raped and dying due to a lack of access to medical care. Women have killed themselves, particularly young women who are unable to bear the pain of gang rape, humiliation, and the load of shame, demonstrating grime reality lived by Sudanese women.
On a daily basis, my coworkers and I face harassment and bullying online,aimed at undermining our credibility and advocacy efforts.. The Sudan war as a proxy war receives massive amounts of resources and money from sponsors, including media outlets.
Sudanese elites are accustomed to using women and the violence against them as a political tool in power dynamics rather than as a fundamental citizenship and peace and stability issue. Acknowledging women’s experiences hinges on one’s political stance and the ability to manipulate facts. Many elites regard the agony and suffering of female victims as a low priority, while demands for accountability and justice are often perceived as obstacles to gaining power. The pursuit of power obscures the crimes committed against women and civilians in the quest for control over the country, land, and resources. International actors hesitate to alleviate the misery and suffering of Sudanese women or even to enhance responses that provide mental health and medical support. Consequently, protecting and supporting women has become increasingly sacred. Despite all of this, there is no choice but to continue along this very lonely path.
Hala Alkarib is an African feminist, women’s rights campaigner, writer, and political analyst focusing on the Horn of Africa and the Sudans.