War, silence and survival: the struggle of Sudanese women

“Women in Sudan are enduring the gravest forms of violence, particularly sexual violence, while being systematically excluded from peace processes” Anna Mutavati, UN Women Regional Director for East and Southern Africa.

It is time to take notice of what Sudanese women have suffered, and are still braving

Since April 2023. Sudan has been torn apart by a civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). This conflict, which has already resulted in the deaths of more than 15,000 people and the displacement of 12 million others, has caused one of the most serious humanitarian crises of the 21st century. Among the populations most affected are women and girls, whose lives, bodies and rights are at the heart of a brutal war that receives little media coverage but has been widely documented by organizations such as UN Women, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Equality Now and many others.

To understand the scale of the current crisis, we need to remember that Sudanese women have never been spared by conflict. Before 2023, they were already on the front lines.

As early as the Darfur war in the 2000s, the Janjaweed militias (ancestors of the RSF) used rape as a weapon of war. Furthermore, under the regime of Omar al-Bashir (1989-2019), women were doubly oppressed: politically by a patriarchal system, and legally by laws that criminalized rape survivors. In other words, women are lacking access in politics due to this ongoing patriarchal mentality.  Despite their central role in the revolution of 2019, they were excluded from the transition processes. Since then, promises of justice and equality have been crushed by the return of military violence.

Since the start of the civil war, Sudanese women have become strategic targets, with sexual violence deliberately used by armed groups to terrorize communities, assert control, and advance their military or political objectives. Amnesty International has documented the systematic use of rape by the RSF in several regions of the country. Some women have been raped daily for weeks on end. Others have been tortured, reduced to sexual slavery or forced into marriage. These acts are committed in public, with impunity, often in front of their children. Chilling examples reported by Amnesty and the BBC describe a woman raped in front of her 12-year-old daughter, another tied to a tree in Nyala, or a woman raped every day in an RSF prison. These crimes aim to dehumanize, terrorize and displace. They are acts of war as well as tools of domination.

According to UN reports, women and girls make up 5.8 million of the 12 million people displaced by the conflict in and outside Sudan more than half. Since the war began, women have become strategic targets, with sexual violence used by armed groups to further military and political aims. Among them, 160,000 are pregnant and deprived of access to essential health care. Living conditions are deplorable: 80% of women have no access to drinking water. 80% of hospitals are out of service. Moreover,  hunger has become a silent weapon of war just as education has. The forced exclusion of girls from school, with 2.5 million having dropped out, leaves them increasingly vulnerable to child marriage and genital mutilation.

Hence, despite the evidence, no national investigation has been launched. The brief “From denial to recognition” (CMI, 2024) reminds us that the Sudanese government recognizes the crimes of the RSF for political reasons, but turns a blind eye to those of the SAF. This variable-geometry recognition compromises any genuine justice. In other words, the recognition of abuses is inconsistent, based on political convenience rather than a commitment to truth or justice . Raped women often have no access to post-rape care or psychological support. Many flee without pressing charges. Sudanese law remains deficient: the country has not ratified the “Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa”. 

Yet Sudanese women are not just victims. They lead self-help networks, organize humanitarian corridors and campaign for peace. UN Women has supported 60 women's organizations since 2023, but they receive insufficient humanitarian funds. Worse still, they are absent from diplomatic talks. Delgermaa Lkhasuren (University of Minnesota, 2024) deconstructs the image of women as passive victims. They took part in the revolutions of 1964, 1985 and 2019. Thus, they deserve a place in the shaping of the future of their nation. 

All the organizations agree: women and girls must be protected, women-led NGOs must be funded, access to justice must be guaranteed, and women must be included on an equal footing in peace negotiations. Amnesty, UN Women, Equality Now, Human Rights Watch, BBC, The Organization for World Peace, TV5 Monde: All these sources are sounding the alarm. The first step is awareness recognizing the scale and urgency of the crisis. Only then can the international community act, each actor responding to the extent of their capacity

all these sources are sounding the alarm. It's now up to the international community to respond. Sudanese women are fighting a twofold battle: to survive and to be recognized. The war is being waged on their bodies, but it is also through their voices that peace may come.