In Sudan, sexually violent victims are frequently forced to endure in silence, their tears being shed where no one can hear them. However, Mariam*, a woman, was able to follow the horror of war wherever she went.
Armed men stopped Mariam’s car as she attempted to leave Gezira State and travel to Khartoum in the early hours of last year. The only other passenger who was targeted was her.
According to Mariam, “They stopped us on the street and forced us down,” Mariam told Asma Mohammed of Al Jazeera Arabic.
They reportedly desired to search our location. She recounted, her voice trembling, “Two of them consulted with each other, then called me over.” They took me to a location where there was a mattress and an empty room. They raped me after I told them to lie down.
Mariam was shattered in the waiting car and returned to her family.
Her aunt told Al Jazeera, “She immediately explained what happened… How many of them there were.” They were, of course, members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Is there a woman living here?
Mariam’s story is not unusual. El-Fasher repeats itself with even more brutality in the tragedy.
Um Kulthum, a medical student, claimed she was forced to go to jail for being a victim of mass rape and murder before becoming one herself.
According to Um Kulthum, “the RSF forces entered and besieged the area.” In front of us, they killed my uncle, the one who raised me.
We shared a four-girl home with the neighbor’s daughter. The RSF forces then brutally assaulted us.
The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) released a chilling new report last November that documented nearly 1,300 cases of sexual and gender-based violence in 14 states since the war started in April 2023.
The regional director of SIHA, Hala Al-Karib, explained to Al Jazeera in November that these are not random acts, but rather a deliberate attempt to treat women as “property.”
When a home is entered, a specific question is asked, “Is there a girl in this house?” Kidnappings frequently occur at the start of an invasion. Do you know any young women? Al-Karib, ” said.
Many witnesses have said, “I am coming to take this girl,” we have heard. “
Trafficking and sexual slavery
Beyond a simple assault, the violence extends to prolonged captivity. Al-Karib described the terrifying reality of “sexual slavery” and forced labor.
According to Al-Karib, “Women are kidnapped for “sexual slavery,” particularly young, middle-aged women, and also for performing forced labor on the soldiers.
She further revealed that the exploitation has gone beyond domestic boundaries, which is even more alarming.
According to Al-Karib, “Women are also kidnapped for the purposes of enslavement and sale in markets.” They are brought into neighboring African nations via the border.
She added that survivors are being crushed by stigma and frequently refusing to go back to their families out of shame because they are being “used as weapons in this war… to defeat communities.”
The Masalit is being punished.
Arnold Tsunga, a lawyer and former director of Africa for the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), who conducted a fact-finding mission to eastern Chad to interview refugees fleeing the violence, further confirmed this.
Tsunga described his “heartbreaking” mission to Adre and Geneina in an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic from Harare.
According to Tsunga, “The RSF are the ones who attacked the Masalit group.” They made up the majority of those who experienced rape and sexual violence.
It saddens me to see that violence is now being used systematically as a means and weapon of war to evict people from their homes and punish Masalit men who attempted to defend their land.
Tsunga remarked that the demise of the rule of law has created an “absolute environment” for these crimes.
There are no functioning justice institutions, he said, adding that the RSF is now in charge of these matters. The issue with impunity is related to rewarding criminals, which leads to even more impunity.
infants as a target
Local hospitals have been overburdened by the violence’s scope. The director general at Omdurman Maternity Hospital described a pattern of atrocities that spared no one, not even infants.
According to Imad al-Din Abdullah al-Siddiq, “the rapes are in very large numbers, far more than what is recorded.”
More than 14 female babies under the age of two were raped. a youngster! He claimed that NGOs have documented this.
According to Al-Siddiq, the hospital has received a large number of victims, mostly unmarried girls, between the ages of 11 and 23. They occur as a result of pregnancy. For those who are under three months, we had to perform abortions.
Since the start of 2024, UNICEF has found more than 200 cases of sexual assault on children, some younger than five.
A pattern that is followed consistently
A planned three-stage pattern is described in the SIHA report: initial home invasions and looting followed by rape, subsequent attacks in public spaces, and finally long-term detention.
This violence takes place in the midst of a worsening famine. Millions of people in Sudan will be at risk of starvation as a result of severe funding gaps, according to the UN’s World Food Programme, which has warned it will cut rations starting in January.
International pressure is also rising in the present. Four senior RSF commanders have been given sanctioned in the UK for allegedly engaging in mass murder and sexual violence.
The diplomatic maneuvers, however, offer little consolation to survivors like Mariam and Um Kulthum. The international investment in reintegrating these women is still “very, very small,” according to Al-Karib.
Source: Aljazeera
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