Issue No. 35

Forgotten Victims: The Plight of Women and Children in Sudan

In Sudan's deeply patriarchal society, women have historically faced repression as well as sexual and gender-based (SGBV) violence. Since independence, the country has witnessed near-constant war in its peripheries, particularly southern Sudan (now South Sudan) and Darfur, in which women have repeatedly borne the brunt of displacement and violence. The latest eruption of armed conflict in mid-April 2023 has once again plunged millions of Sudanese women into instability, who now face overlapping crises of violence, hunger, and displacement. With the conflict only escalating amid stagnant mediation efforts, the humanitarian crisis facing women in Sudan is expected to deteriorate further.

Sudan’s has become the world's largest displacement crisis, with over 8.6 million people either internally displaced or driven from the country. The overwhelming majority of those internally displaced are women and children, making up 88% of the total number. With a report by the UN's International Organisation of Migration in April 2024 estimating that 20,000 people are still being forced to flee their homes every day, support for these fleeing and displaced women and children is urgently needed, but levels of support continue to be woeful. They face several dangers while travelling to 'safer' locations, navigating threats from armed militias to hostile terrain. Even once they arrive, only a fraction of the required humanitarian aid is reaching those who desperately need it, in large part due to the weaponisation of assistance by the major warring parties.

Rape and sexual violence have been defining features of the armed conflict since its eruption last year. Reliable and accurate statistics on the scale of the use of rape as a weapon of war are unobtainable, so the full scale of the violence is unknown. What is clear, however, is that there has been a significant increase in instances of rape, physical violence, abductions, and other forms of conflict-related SGBV, especially in areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their allied Arab militias. With the collapse of a state presence in much of Khartoum, Kordofan, Darfur, and elsewhere, limited legal protection and policing have also evaporated, leaving women further exposed to various forms of SGBV without recourse.

The Janjaweed progenies have repeated the 'scorched-earth' policy that made them infamous 20 years ago in Darfur, where they engaged in the ethnic targeting and massacre of the 'African' tribes of the region-- particularly the Masalit, Fur, and Zaghawa. Harrowing stories of repeated rape and sexual violence at the hands of the marauding supremacists continue to emerge. Due to the lack of available medical assistance in conflict areas, many of these women have received no treatment and support, and in many cases, have been forced to carry to term the children of their rapists. And with the RSF encamped on the outskirts of El Fasher, senior humanitarian officials are continuing to warn about the imminent threat of large-scale war crimes being carried out against women and children as witnessed elsewhere in Darfur.

Elsewhere, forced and child marriage are reported to be on the rise across Sudan, in part driven by a steep drop in 'bride prices' due to the rapid impoverishment of the country. The education system in Sudan has collapsed-- leaving girls more vulnerable to SGBV and badly impacting children's cognitive and social development. Teenage boys and children have further been photographed in military garb, particularly with the RSF, having been forcibly recruited from displacement camps and elsewhere. The Janjaweed were known to recruit child soldiers during the 2000s in Darfur, exploiting the historic customs of the Rizeigat tribes and others. Estimates of child soldiers within the RSF have been placed as high as 8,000-10,000.

One of the most concerning realities for women in Sudan is the rapid deterioration of support for pregnant women. Pre-war, Sudan's rural healthcare system was already fragile and patchwork, but it has now nearly entirely ceased operation in several conflict-affected regions, with hospitals deprived of essential supplies and massive shortages of medical staff. Just this past weekend, the Women's, Maternity, and Neonatal Hospital in El Fasher was hit by RSF artillery, injuring 9 people and causing serious damage to the building. Across the country, a UN Women report in April 2024 revealed that approximately 1.2 million pregnant and breastfeeding women are at risk of death if their nutritional and health needs remain unmet. And yet, despite the scale of these humanitarian emergencies, just 6%-- USD 155 million-- of the UN's humanitarian plan for Sudan was funded as of mid-April 2024.

Across much of the country, women are being forced to step into leadership and head-of-household roles as their husbands, fathers, and sons are drawn into the fighting. In displacement camps, women are required to both support their families financially and keep them alive with minimal humanitarian aid. Meanwhile, in RSF-controlled territory, some women have armed themselves to protect their families. And in Port Sudan, multiple training camps for women and girls have been established by the Sudanese army, where they are undergoing military training.

Despite the odds, Sudanese women have again emerged as leading figures in community resilience and peace advocacy, leading a number of grassroots initiatives in assessing and addressing the needs of conflict victims. This builds on the eviscerated legacy of their role in the revolution that toppled Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir in April 2019, where following his overthrow, they were marginalised in the transitional civilian-military government. Women, and the issues that are particularly impacting them, should be placed at the forefront of any possible political talks and negotiations. In the meantime, greater humanitarian and political support is urgently needed for women, the forgotten victims of a forgotten war.

By the Horn Edition team