Researchers have documented dozens of attacks targeting members of the Nuba ethnic group. Copy link. twitter. facebook. whatsapp. email. Gang rape and sexual slavery are being used as a tool of “systemic abuse” against ethnic minorities in Sudan’s bloody civil war, an investigation has found.
Researchers from Human Rights Watch recorded dozens of attacks carried out by Sudan’s Rapid Support Fighters (RSF) or allied militia groups, who have been fighting the Sudanese national army for control of the country since April 2023. Most of the women described being gang raped in front of their families or over prolonged periods of time, including being held as sex slaves by RSF fighters.
One survivor said she had been held as a sex slave with 50 other women and “raped repeatedly over three months”. All 79 attacks targeted members of the Nuba ethnic group aged between seven and 50 and took place between December 2023 and October this year.
The attacks being committed by the RSF “constitute war crimes and may constitute crimes against humanity,” the report’s authors said. The incidents recorded by researchers occurred in the Nuba Mountains, a rugged rural region bordering South Sudan where an estimated 700,000 people are currently sheltering in tents made of sticks and tarpaulin in what has become the worst displacement crisis in the world.
