AYA IBRAHIM

Sudan- The civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted in Sudan has entered its second year. Women and children are extremely vulnerable to this war in the country suffering from the world's largest displacement crisis.

Since the war started on April 15, 2023, Sudanese women have been subjected to serious rights violations such as rape, harassment and kidnapping. They have been sold as slaves for the global sex trade. In August 2023, the first training camp for women and girls in the River Nile state was opened. The women and girls joining the camp learn how to use weapons and fight in order to protect themselves and their family.

Women are the most affected by the war, said Samia Al-Tayeb Abdel Karim, a dentist and secretary of the Sudanese Women’s Initiative. “I live in Khartoum but I came here to learn how to fight. Due to this war, women have lost their homes and jobs. The lack of security and stability is one of the important reasons for women to learn how to use weapons. The Nusseibeh Sisters was formed in 1990 as the first Sudanese women’s combat battalion during the regime of Omar al Bashir. The camp is named after it.”

‘I am here to protect women’

Alaa Saleh Taher, a 22-year-old student at the Omdurman Ahlia University, decided to join the camp in August, four months after the war started in Sudan. She first learned how to use weapons for 45 days. “About 285 women and girls have learned how to fight and use weapons in the camp,” she told us. “I am here to protect myself, my family and women from all kinds of attack, threat and violence. All women and girls should join the camp to protect themselves.”

‘There is still hope’

Since the civil war started in Sudan, 157 cases of violence against women have been recorded, said Salima Ishaq, member of the Unit for Combating Violence against Women under Sudan's Ministry of Social Development. “The real numbers are probably higher. The families of women, who were kidnapped, raped and subjected to violence, do not report because they are afraid of being stigmatized in society. What women are subjected to is very difficult but there is still hope.”