RSF sexual violence ‘intends to terrorise civilians’, says UN fact-finding mission in Sudan

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is responsible for extensive sexual violence, including gang rape, abductions, and instances amounting to sexual slavery, according to a new report from the UN fact-finding mission on Sudan. The report calls for immediate civilian protections and warns that these acts likely constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, including torture, sexual slavery, and persecution based on intersecting racial and gender identities.

The United Nations fact-finding mission on Sudan investigation, released on Tuesday, shows an alarming pattern of sexual and gender-based violence by the RSF, particularly in Greater Khartoum, Darfur, and El Gezira. These acts appear intended to terrorise civilians, punish perceived adversaries, and suppress resistance, according to the published report.

“The sheer scale of sexual violence we have documented in Sudan is staggering,” said Mohamed Chande, head of the fact-finding mission. “The situation faced by vulnerable civilians, in particular women and girls of all ages, is deeply alarming and needs urgent address.”

The report documents widespread acts of rape, gang rape, sexual exploitation, and abduction, especially during RSF-led invasions of cities and towns, and attacks on displacement camps.

While some cases of violence involving the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and their allied groups were also documented, the report concludes that RSF-perpetrated violence is largely systematic, aimed at inflicting maximum terror and oppression.

In Darfur, the “particularly cruel” violence included the use of “firearms, knives, and whips to intimidate or coerce the victims while using derogatory, racist or sexist slurs and death threats”. Some assaults took place in front of family members, who were also threatened. Men and boys were also targeted -often based on “real or perceived ethnicity”- for sexual violence, including rape and forced nudity while in detention.

International law violations

The fact-finding mission found “reasonable grounds to believe” that RSF and associated militias have violated international humanitarian and human rights laws. These include “violence to life and person” through torture, inhumane treatment, rape, and other indecent assaults. The abduction and detention of women and girls for sexual purposes, often in conditions of confinement where the RSF exercised complete control, meet criteria for acts of sexual slavery, the report concluded.

Need protection

“These women, girls, boys, and men in Sudan who are increasingly exposed to sexual and gender-based violence need protection,” said mission expert Joy Ngozi Ezeilo. “Without accountability, the cycle of hatred and violence will carry on. We must put a halt to impunity and hold perpetrators to account.”

“The responsibility and shame for these heinous acts should be placed solely on the perpetrators,” said Mona Rishmawi, an expert on the mission. “Unless the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is expanded to cover all Sudan and an independent judicial mechanism working in tandem and complementarity with the ICC is established, the perpetrators of these crimes will continue to rip through Sudan causing terror and havoc.”

The report calls for immediate international intervention to protect civilians. “There is no safe place in Sudan now,” said Osman, emphasising the need for an independent protection force.

The UN Human Rights Council established the Fact-Finding Mission in October 2023 to investigate alleged abuses in Sudan’s ongoing armed conflict, which began on April 15, 2023. Led by Osman, alongside experts Ezeilo and Rishmawi, the mission’s mandate has been extended until October 2025.