UN Report: Sexual Violence Used as Weapon of War in Sudan

The United Nations Human Rights Office has reported that sexual violence is increasingly being utilized as a "weapon of war" to terrorize the civilian population in Sudan. According to the report, the scale, prevalence, and brutality of these attacks are unprecedented.

Since the conflict began more than three years ago, the UN has verified 546 incidents of conflict-related sexual violence. These cases include sexual slavery and gang-rape, affecting at least 838 victims. The verified victims include 539 women, 284 girls, eight men, and seven boys.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk stated that these acts constitute war crimes. He further noted that if these attacks are carried out as part of a systematic or widespread attack, they are considered crimes against humanity.

While the report attributes most verified cases to allied militias and fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), it also accuses the army and its allies of committing sexual violence. Both the army and the RSF have denied such allegations in the past and have not yet commented on this specific report.

The UN warns that these verified figures represent only the "tip of the iceberg," as the full extent of the violence has been obscured by persistent under-reporting.

This violence occurs against the backdrop of a devastating civil war that began in 2023 following a fallout between the paramilitary RSF and the army. The conflict has created a massive humanitarian crisis, with 28 million people facing acute hunger and more than 11 million forced to flee their homes.