Human Rights Watch claims that women in South Kordofan, Sudan, are being used as sex slaves

Human Rights Watch stated in a study released on Monday that combatants from the warring Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and other militias had sexually assaulted and even kept as sex slaves women from South Kordofan state in Sudan.

Requests for comment were not immediately answered by the RSF. Throughout the 20-month-old conflict with the army of Sudan, which has ravaged the nation and forced more than 12 million people to flee, it has consistently refuted claims of systematic abuses.

Human Rights Watch, located in New York, reported that it has recorded 79 instances of rape of girls and women as young as seven. It claimed to have spoken with seven survivors, one of whom claimed to have been raped repeatedly over the course of three months while being detained alongside fifty other women.

In the isolated region bordering South Sudan, the report claimed that Nuba women were the focus of fighters, and the attacks were considered war crimes.

According to Belkis Wille, associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch, “Survivors described being gang raped, in front of their families or over prolonged periods of time, including while being held as sex slaves by RSF fighters,”

The report stated that women who tried to flee were held in “a pen-like setup with wires and tree branches” and tied together.

Charges

According to the study, the majority of the attacks had been publicized since the RSF attacked the town of Habila and neighboring communities on December 31, 2023.

The remainder of the state has been battled over for years by the army and the SPLM-N, a rebel organization primarily made up of Nuba ethnic members.

One Nuba woman was described by Human Rights Watch as explaining how her attackers made reference to her ethnicity. She was cited as stating, “They told each other, ‘These Nuba are our slaves, we can do anything we want,’ as they raped us.”

The United States accused the RSF of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity last year for attacking members of the Massalit community in West Darfur state. Although the RSF has denied widespread violations, it has stated that it will look into specific soldiers.

The United States and UN experts have also accused Sudan’s army of war crimes, claiming that it has obstructed supplies and conducted indiscriminate airstrikes in RSF territory. The army has denied these accusations.

Conflicts on how to integrate the two forces during a democratic transition led to the start of the conflict between them in April 2023. Although the RSF quickly took control of almost half of the nation, the army has recently advanced into the southern regions and the capital, Khartoum.