Mervat Abdel Qader

Sudan — Sudanese women today live at the heart of a complex crisis where armed violence intersects with a patriarchal social system and discriminatory laws, making them the most vulnerable and most frequently targeted group. Laws and traditions grant men wide authority that legitimizes violence, while the armed conflict has intensified violations and turned women’s bodies into battlegrounds on which all forms of oppression are practiced.

For decades, Sudanese women have suffered various forms of systematic violence. Sudanese society is governed by inherited customs and traditions rooted in a patriarchal structure that marginalizes women and reduces their role in public life. With the outbreak of armed conflict, violence did not remain confined to the battlefield, but spilled over into civilian life and pierced the core of the social fabric. Women and girls have become the easiest and most dangerous targets, as sexual and physical violence is used as a direct weapon to terrorize communities and shatter their social bonds. Waves of displacement, the loss of shelter, and the collapse of health and education services have compounded their suffering, turning their plight into a stark embodiment of the complexity and brutality of the Sudanese crisis.

This violence is no longer a series of isolated acts; it has become a deliberate strategy designed to exclude women and marginalize their role in all sectors. As the conflict continues, wounds deepen, and the responsibility grows to make women’s issues central to pathways of justice, accountability, and peacebuilding in Sudan — not a marginal concern that can be overlooked.

 

The Beginning of the Great Collapse

On April 15, 2023, armed clashes erupted between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) after disputes over integrating the RSF into the army, following the 2021 coup that ousted the civilian government. As clashes escalated into a full-scale war, the country became divided politically and militarily, descending into open, bloody conflict that spread across Khartoum, Darfur, Gezira, and other regions.

The war quickly took on tribal and ethnic dimensions in some areas, leading to the displacement of more than 12 million people inside and outside Sudan. Women and girls were the most affected, representing six million of the displaced and facing extreme poverty, famine, lack of healthcare, and widespread rape.

In May 2025, when the army regained control of Greater Khartoum, the scene appeared like a long-awaited breakthrough. Millions of exhausted displaced people saw in this moment an opportunity to return to the homes they had fled. Nearly two million people returned to their neighborhoods and villages, reducing the total number of displaced people to ten million. But return was not the end of suffering — it was the beginning of a new chapter.

Returnees found cities without souls: destroyed homes, collapsed water and electricity networks, and hospitals either closed or empty of medicine. The challenge was not just rebuilding walls, but rebuilding life itself amid a vast emptiness that swallowed hope. Women, in particular, bore the burden of reorganizing daily life — securing food and water, caring for children and the elderly — without support or protection. In temporary displacement centers and devastated neighborhoods, repeated incidents of sexual violence and harassment were recorded, turning women into double victims: victims of war and victims of society.

 

Systematic Crimes and Ethnic Cleansing

In May 2025, the RSF committed one of the most horrific massacres in the city of Geneina in West Darfur. Human Rights Watch documented crimes of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in a 186-page report. During the first half of the same year, the UN Human Rights Office recorded at least 3,384 civilian deaths, the majority in Darfur, where the RSF controls four out of five states. This figure represents about 80% of all recorded civilian deaths in Sudan last year. Accurately estimating the numbers remains extremely difficult due to the collapse of the health system, ongoing fighting, and communication blackouts.

 

Starvation as a Weapon of War… The Case of El-Fasher

El-Fasher endured a suffocating siege for more than 500 days before falling into RSF hands on October 26, 2025. During the siege, residents faced severe famine. Families resorted to eating ambaz (animal fodder) to survive, leading to fatal poisoning cases. More than 100,000 people — mostly women and children — fled on foot for more than 60 kilometers toward safer areas.

In displacement camps, where there is no food, safe drinking water, or healthcare, thousands of cases of acute malnutrition were recorded among children and the elderly. The Coordination of Displaced Persons and Refugees documented 5,300 cases, resulting in the death of 23 children in a single month in South Kordofan. Hunger also triggered outbreaks of epidemics: more than 2,000 cases of dengue fever were recorded in August, while cholera cases reached 12,739 during the second quarter of 2025.

Reports reveal the catastrophic conditions women face. Forced displacement, extreme physical and mental exhaustion, and the lack of food and medical care have led to a rise in miscarriages. More than 243 pregnant women from El-Fasher arrived in the Tawilah camp in North Darfur and in the city of Al-Dabbah in the Northern State under life-threatening conditions for them and their unborn children.

Violence in El-Fasher has become a systematic policy. Women’s bodies are violated as weapons of war. Girls are raped in front of their mothers; husbands are killed; children are abducted — leaving a void that tears the spirit apart. All this happens while the city is besieged and bread and medicine become distant dreams.

Families face two bitter choices: stay under bombing and starvation, or flee into the unknown. Many crossed into Chad carrying stories of pain and survival; others stayed, clinging to the remnants of their land and memories.

 

Sexual Violence… Women Turned into Instruments of War

The conflict in Sudan has turned women’s bodies into battlefronts. Sexual violence has become a systematic tool to terrorize communities, especially in Darfur and Khartoum, but violations extend beyond combat zones into all areas of displacement and refuge, placing women and girls at the center of the humanitarian crisis.

The phenomenon of enslaving women is not new, but it has now taken far more dangerous and widespread dimensions. Dozens of women and girls — some as young as 12 — have been subjected to sexual violence by warring parties. Some were held for days in conditions tantamount to “sexual slavery,” in blatant violation of basic human rights.

Human rights experts documented at least 330 cases of conflict-related sexual violence, though the real number is believed to be much higher due to underreporting. In one week alone, 32 girls from El-Fasher were raped while trying to flee to Tawilah, with some cases occurring inside the city after RSF forces overran it.

Violations included gang rape, rape in front of family members, abductions for ransom, targeting activists and humanitarian workers, and sexual violence with ethnic and racial motives. In September, a widely circulated video showed a Darfuri girl being brutally tortured by an RSF soldier — hung from a tree with a rope, ending her life in excruciating pain, a scene that reflects the immense suffering of women.

The RSF also massacred 300 women in El-Fasher during the first two days of capturing the city and killed about 37 women and several children in a drone strike targeting civilians in Al-Obeid.

 

Female Journalists on the Frontlines of Conflict

Female journalists have not been spared from violence. Their profession has turned into a daily risk, reflecting the fragility of Sudan’s political and social landscape. A job meant to be a voice for truth has become a perilous mission intersecting political repression and institutional collapse.

Since the conflict began, press freedom in Sudan has dropped to rank 156 globally after previously being 149. This decline is not just a number — it reflects arrests, threats, and killings that have forced dozens of journalists to flee or seek refuge in neighboring countries.

Women journalists face a double burden: the dangers of conflict and job loss. In Darfur alone, more than 150 female journalists have had to work under pseudonyms to avoid retaliation, amid threats of arrest, sexual harassment, and rape, as well as coordinated online smear campaigns such as those targeting journalist Maha Al-Talib.

The collapse of media institutions has added further obstacles. Newspapers stopped printing; presses shut down; kiosks disappeared. Journalists were forced to rely on unsafe digital platforms and lost vital training spaces that once produced skilled media professionals.

Violations include arrests, detentions, shootings, and destruction of homes. In a single year, the journalists’ syndicate recorded 377 violations, including 130 against women journalists. Six journalists were killed; three women journalists were sexually assaulted; five were arrested and threatened with death; thirteen others came under fire; and ten lost their homes to destruction.

 

Female Genital Mutilation and Child Marriage… A Deep-Rooted Patriarchal Mindset

Domestic violence and armed conflict in Sudan intersect to create a harsh reality that pushes women to the brink. While conflict intensifies their suffering through displacement, poverty, and sexual violence, the home itself becomes a daily battlefield — a space of psychological and physical abuse maintained by a culture that views women as inferior from the moment they are born.

Discrimination begins early: the birth of a boy is celebrated, while that of a girl is met with disappointment. This structural violence continues through unequal rights, education, and opportunities. The most brutal expression is female genital mutilation, still practiced under the pretext of “protecting honor,” affecting 87% of Sudanese women. Similarly, thousands of girls are denied education and forced into child marriage.

Within marriage, patriarchal norms grant husbands near-absolute control over women's bodies, time, and rights. Insults, beatings, and coercion are considered “a man’s right,” not crimes. Under such normalization, brutal cases occur: reports document survivors being killed by their own families under the guise of “honor.” UNICEF reported that more than three million women were at risk of gender-based violence before the conflict, and the number rose to 4.2 million after it.

 

Ineffective Laws and Chronic Impunity

Sudanese law lacks clear provisions criminalizing domestic violence or holding perpetrators accountable. Many aspects of personal status law rely on conservative customs that give husbands near-total authority, turning violence against women into socially accepted behavior — from discrimination in childhood to FGM, child marriage, and physical abuse.

Although some legal reforms have been introduced — such as criminalizing FGM under the 1991 Act and the 2014 Anti-Trafficking Law, alongside provisions addressing sexual violence in conflict and women’s labor rights — these laws remain largely unenforced.

Women still face legal and social restrictions through charges like “indecent dress” and rules controlling women’s behavior and public presence. Impunity is the most glaring problem — most perpetrators of sexual violence since 2003 have never been prosecuted, fueling further violence in the current conflict.

 

Women at the Forefront of Humanitarian Efforts

Since the conflict began, women have taken leading roles in humanitarian response despite facing widespread violations. Many women have continued to provide medical and psychological support under dangerous conditions, especially healthcare workers who persisted despite severe shortages.

Women also launched local initiatives to support displaced people, particularly women and children suffering from gender-based violence. Movements such as “Women Against War” emerged to call for ceasefire and dialogue, emphasizing that women’s participation is not merely an equality demand, but a strategic necessity for sustainable peace.

Despite a long history of political engagement, challenges, and extensive violations, Sudanese women remain excluded from peace negotiations and transitional discussions — weakening the likelihood of incorporating their needs into future solutions.

 

A Crime Against Humanity in Broad Daylight

What is happening in Sudan today is not just an internal crisis — it is an open crime against humanity committed in full view of the world. Women are systematically targeted and turned into tools of war, while the international community responds with statements of condemnation that neither stop bullets nor save starving children.

How long will silence continue while women are killed twice: once through the violation of their bodies, and again through the silencing of their voices?

Sudan today is not just a besieged country — it is a human cry that must be heard and acted upon. Women’s issues must become a red line in any political or negotiation process. Peace without justice for women is a false peace, and justice that fails to prosecute rapists and killers is a distorted justice.

The world must understand that the struggle of Sudanese women is a struggle for all humanity, and ignoring it is an acceptance of a world where war legitimizes the rape of women and the starvation of children.