African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies ACJPS | المركز الافريقي لدراسات العدالة و السلام
(26 November 2023) African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) calls for urgent steps to be taken by Sudanese authorities to investigate and hold to account the perpetrators of the rape including the gang rape of 43 women and abduction of 26 others including 10 previously reported by ACJPS in South Darfur. Sudanese authorities should ensure the allocation of adequate resources and victim and witness protection in the cases, that took place since April 2023. One of the victims was raped repeatedly by three armed officers of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) including anal sex which led to bleeding till her death weeks later. Two others were beaten with a lash before being raped, also by RSF officers.
ACJPS calls for Sudanese and local authorities to proceed with an investigation into the rape and abductions to find and prosecute the perpetrators. A special prosecutor should be appointed to the case should the victims wish to proceed with a criminal prosecution. Local authorities must guarantee the victim’s protection from reprisal. ACJPS further calls on the Sudanese authorities to immediately put in place measures to protect civilians, especially the vulnerable groups in IDP camps during this armed conflict.
We all call on the RSF to release all victims of abductions and guarantee their safety and physical well-being.
The international community should publicly and privately press the RSF and Sudanese government to meet its obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law.
Incidents of abductions
ACJPS has documented at least 26 cases of abductions including 10 previously reported in August 2023 perpetuated by the RSF, armed militias, and unknown robbers who have taken advantage of the war to commit crimes. Some abductors have demanded a ransom from the families of the victims for their release. ACJPS remains concerned for the physical safety and well-being of the victims who are at risk of being subjected to other grave human rights violations including sexual violence. Some of the incidents include the following. The names used in the incidents are not real to protect the victims.
On 16 October 2023, at around11:00am, Amina, a 15-year-old girl was moving with her friend Lilia (not her real name, a 22-year-old woman from Alezaa neighborhood to the Turkish Hospital in Nyala, South Darfur State, when they were abducted after being stopped in the main street by a group of men in a Toyota Hilux model 2022 without number plates and forced inside the car. Their whereabouts remain unknown.
On 26 October 2023, Ms Hawa, a 19-year-old woman was on her way from the AL-jeer neighborhood in Nyala headedalso to the Turkish Hospital when she was abducted in a Toyota Hilux without a number plate from the main street. Later,the unknown abductors contacted her family and demanded them pay 22, 000, 000 Sudanese Pounds if she was to bereleased. Several eyewitnesses who saw the vehicle suspect it to belong to a group of criminal brothers who have taken advantage of the war to commit crimes. They allegedly recently got out of prison after the outbreak of the war in April 2023.
Incidents of rape
On 15 July 2023, at around 10:00 am, approximately 15 armed men in RSF uniform and others in plain clothes stopped a passenger van carrying four male and female university students in the area of Adnerw Valley located 30 kilometers fromNyala. The students were studying in Khartoum but after the outbreak of the war, they fled to Elfashir then they used the van to travel to Nyala. The male detainees were separated from the females and later the driver was ordered to leave with the males. The female detainees, aged between 18 and to 23-years-old were forcefully taken to the valley and raped and later traveled to Nyala in another car. The victims later received medical care.
From May to August 2023, at least 13 women and a child living in Kalma IDP camp were sexually abused while they moved out of the camp for several reasons including to work. The victims are from centers 4,5,6,7 and 8 within Kalma IDP camp. The incidents happened in different locations and were perpetrated by armed men in RSF uniforms and others from the Arab militia. Out of the 13 victims, two were aged 17-years-old.
Victims’ testimonies
The identities of the victims have been concealed to protect them. Therefore, all the names used in these testimonies are not real.
The mother of one of the victims told ACJPS that she never imagined her daughter, Ebtisam, aged 33 years old to be a victim of rape. With tears in her eyes, she narrated “On 3 August 2023, my daughter Ebtisam left the camp to go to the Italian Hospital in South Darfur for a check-up as she was suffering from heart disease and was on medication. After completing the check-up, she moved to the pharmacy of the hospital to get medicine but it was out of service because the medicine got finished and it was never restocked because of the war. The other commercial pharmacies were also closed. She was then advised by a security officer of the hospital to consider buying the medicine from the Turkish Hospitallocated in the Southern direction of Nyala. Ebtisam followed his advice and went to the Turkish hospital where she found the medication. After she purchased her medicine, she started heading back to the camp at around 03:00 pm on a tuk-tuk(motorcycle taxi). She was joined by two other male passengers who were headed to the Jabel neighborhood. When they reached in front of Yashfin Clinic, located on Aldeian Street, three armed men with masked faces in RSF uniforms suddenly appeared on the road and stopped the driver with gun threats. They asked the three passengers and the rider to step outside. After that, the three men were ordered to move ahead and not look back. I suspect that they stole the tuk-tuk. Standing there terrified, one of the armed men asked Ebtisam her name. She answered and added that she was from the hospital because she was sick. He then asked her to go to where he was standing but she refused. He loaded his automatic gun and told her that one bullet was enough to kill her if she didn’t obey his orders. She had no choice but to go to him. On reaching where he was, he ordered her to keep moving ahead and enter the clinic. After that, he ordered her to enter one of the rooms labeled “doctor’s room”. In the room, there was a bed with a mosquito net and a desk beside two chairs. The armed man tried to forcefully remove her clothes but she resisted. While Ebisam was crying and telling him that she was sick, he threatened her with his automatic gun again before raping her. After the rape, he moved out to let a second man rape her before he did the same and moved to call the third one. She was raped including by having anal sex which caused her heavy bleeding. The men then asked her to leave but she was unable to walk. One of them carried her and placed her on the side of the road where she stayed until sunset when two women found her. The women thought that she was injured by a bullet because of the heavy bleeding. They took her to their house located in the East Alwadi neighborhood. In the morning, they hired a tuk-tuk that brought her back home.” Ms. Ebtisam was taken to the doctor and she received treatment but the bleeding continued until she passed away on 8 August 2023. She had earlier been advised by the doctors not to engage in sexual intercourse because of the heart disease.
Ms. Alzina, a woman aged 22 years old living in center 5 of Kalma camp told ACJPS that “On 15 July 2023, at around 10:00 am, we moved together from the camp with my friend Khalda to the garden in Magok neighborhood next to Nyala Valley to work as gardeners to plant onions and tomatoes in the garden of Mr. Abdallah (not a real name). While working,three armed men and a fourth who was holding a lash in his hand, all in RSF uniforms appeared and asked us what we were doing. We told them that we were hired to plant onions and tomatoes. They then asked the whereabouts of the garden owner to which we responded that he had not yet come. They then sarcastically asked us whether we were not aware that there was a war going on that we moved out of our homes. We responded that we had to work to buy food and water. The one who was holding a lash responded that they were going to show us the food. He came closer and started beating us while instructing us to run towards the valley. Two of the armed men followed us until we reached the valley. One of the men held my hand and the second one held Khalda’s hand while threatening to kill us with their guns if we didn’t accept to do what they asked of us. At this moment, Khalda started crying. The one who was holding my hand sat down and asked me to sit down as well before they started raping us. After a while, one of the three armed men who remained in the garden started calling his colleagues and asking whether they had not yet finished. The one who was raping me whose name is Jebreel requested him to give them more time. The rape took approximately one hour before they released us and threatened to take us with them if they found us again. We returned to the camp where we received medical services”.
Background
Between 15 April 2023 and 31 July 2023, at least 22 women were subjected to sexual abuse in South Darfur State in the areas that are under the control of RSF. The victims are from the neighborhoods of the Industrial Area, Alsalam, Money Tock and Almatar, ALmuashi market, and Karari neighborhoods. The majority were those who were working on the streets as food and drink vendors. In August 2023, ACJPS documented a report on abduction and sexual slavery by RSF in Nyala. On 21 November 2023, ACJPS reported sexual abuse against 51 women and girls in Garsilla and Zalingi towns in Central Darfur by RSF and armed Arab militias.
