News Center- The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has inflicted widespread sexual violence on women and girls throughout Sudan’s two-year civil war to humiliate, assert control and displace communities across the country. The RSF’s atrocities, including rape, gang-rape and sexual slavery, amount to war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, Amnesty International said in a new report on Wednesday.

 The “They raped all of us: Sexual violence against women and girls in Sudan” report documents RSF soldiers raping or gang-raping 36 women and girls as young as 15, plus other forms of sexual violence, in four Sudanese states between April 2023 and October 2024.

According to the report, violations include raping a mother after tearing away her breastfeeding baby and the 30-day sexual enslavement of a woman in Khartoum, as well as severe beatings, torture with hot liquid or sharp blades, and murder.

Sudan’s civil war displaces more than 11 million

Sudan’s civil war erupted in April 2023 between the RSF and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), killing tens of thousands of people and displacing more than 11 million. “Both sides have committed serious violations of international humanitarian law, some of which amount to war crimes, including sexual violence against women and girls,” the report said.

For the report, Amnesty International interviewed 30 people, mostly survivors and relatives of survivors in Ugandan refugee camps. “All survivors and witnesses identified RSF fighters as perpetrators. The RSF’s use of sexual violence throughout the conflict and across Sudan, combined with the fact that many attacks took place in the presence of other soldiers, victims and other civilians, indicates perpetrators did not feel compelled to hide their crimes and did not fear any response.”

‘The most horrific day in my life’

“It was the most horrific day in my life,” said a survivor of sexual violence, who was raped by RSF soldiers in Nyala, South Darfur. Amnesty International found two cases of sexual slavery in Khartoum, including a woman who said RSF troops held her captive in a house for a month, raping her almost daily.

“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,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International Senior Director for Regional Human Rights Impact. “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.”