Rapid Support Forces Gang-Rape Women in Khartoum, Sudan, Leaving Children Like Yasser

In Sudan’s capital Khartoum, Nasma (26) said Rapid Support Forces fighters gang-raped her two years ago after they intercepted the bus she was on, ordered passengers to disembark, and separated men from women.

Nasma told the France Presse agency, "I saw their faces and I still remember them," and she said she did not realize she was pregnant until her fifth month before deciding to keep the child.

Africanews

In the Bahri area of Khartoum, she said she lost consciousness during the rape and then, when she awoke the next day, "I went outside and saw one of the men who had been on the bus shot dead."

Her son Yasser is one of thousands of children born to women who suffered rape during three years of war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, according to the accounts cited in the reports.

In Darfur, Hayat (20) told AFP she was raped while fleeing the Zamzam camp near El Fasher after it was stormed by the Rapid Support Forces, and she described arriving in Tallouja with a four-month-old baby.

Hayat said, "I wish him a better future; I hope he doesn't live as we lived," and the reports link the attack to killings of over 1,000 people and systematic rapes targeting ethnic minorities that are non-Arab, according to the UN.

africaradio

The accounts also describe how Rapid Support Forces fighters shared videos saying raping women from minority ethnic backgrounds "honors" their lineage, and how survivors faced ostracism, marginalization, or accusations of complicity.

UN humanitarian affairs coordinator Denise Brown said, "there are hundreds of girls who were raped, and none of them went to a medical clinic, most of them pregnant," as the reports connect stigma and documentation gaps to further harm.

A UN report published on Thursday says there are more than 4,600 survivors worldwide who suffered sexual violence for warfare purposes in 2024, an increase of 25 percent from the previous year.

The UN report, as described in the coverage, says it names Hamas for the first time among perpetrators of these crimes, and it adds that there are "reasonable grounds to believe that some hostages taken to Gaza endured various forms of sexual violence" during captivity.

The same UN coverage says access to care is constrained, with Pramila Patten warning, "Services are least available precisely at the moment when survivors need them most."

The report also says it provides a list of 63 state and non-state actors suspected of sexual violence in conflicts on the Security Council’s agenda, and recommends that the Security Council rely more on targeted sanctions against recurring perpetrators.