Issue No. 62

Echoes of Al-Matama in Present-Day Sudan 

In an infamous episode in July 1897, in Al-Matama on the banks of the River Nile, a number of Sudanese women tied their bodies together and threw themselves into the water to escape sexual violence from Mahdist soldiers. Over the decades, accounts of the mass suicide towards the end of the Second Mahdiya have been eulogised and passed down as emblematic of the horrors of war and injustice. And one hundred and twenty-seven years later, history has repeated itself. In October, Sudanese activists reported that dozens of women had drowned themselves in a river to avoid the marauding attacks by withdrawing Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Gezira State.
 
Since the armed conflict in Sudan erupted in April 2023, rape and sexual violence have been weaponised and deployed by multiple belligerents amid the broader collapse of the country. While peripheral Darfurian women and communities have long experienced weaponised sexual violence, the outbreak of the conflict in Khartoum and its all-encompassing nature has drawn in previously unaffected strata of society. Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the UN International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan, upon the release of a report documenting sexual violence and other crimes, said that the "sheer scale of sexual violence... is staggering." And like many other conflicts, age has been no discriminator for sexual violence, with documented victims ranging from 8 to 75. The ongoing war has left none safe, with displacement numbers now topping 11 million-- predominantly women and children forced into overcrowded, underfunded camps with limited food aid. Moreover, the evisceration of social and medical support has further meant that survivors in need of medical assistance are unable to access it.
 
The horrors of the past months are a grim subsequent chapter to the 2018-2019 revolution, where women played a central role in toppling long-serving dictator Omar al-Bashir. Sudanese women were on the frontline in the 'neighbourhood committees' that organised the mass protests, demanding seismic political and societal change. Women's anger with the 'al-Ingaz' regime, particularly remnants of the Islamist social policies of the ideologue Hassan al-Turabi, as well as the rising food and fuel costs, was one of the most notable elements of the betrayed revolution. Images of Sudanese women taking the streets were widely shared, with one particular photo of a young Sudanese woman clothed in white and standing atop a car—dubbed the 'modern Kandaka'—becoming a symbol of resilience.
 
Even amidst this moment of hope, however, were weaponised elements of sexual violence, and clear signs that the dominant military establishment would not easily hand over the political-economic reigns of power. On 3 June 2019, after the deposition of al-Bashir, RSF paramilitaries attacked a peaceful sit-in in Khartoum, killing dozens of people and raping numerous women in a bid to break the spirit of the protestors. The next day, all military-civilian talks were cancelled as the transitional military coalition sought to consolidate its position. International and domestic outrage forced them back to the table, but it was a potent sign of the ease with which security forces would deploy mass violence against civilians for political purposes.
 
Returning to the current conflict, the mass suicide in October was once again the result of a seemingly deliberate policy by RSF command towards communities in central Sudan. It was the defection of RSF commander Abu Aqla Kikal to the Sudanese army that precipitated a massive wave of indiscriminate revenge attacks, including rape and sexual violence, against villages and towns to prevent further defections and resistance from his ethnic group. But the RSF is also a fundamentally predatory coalition of militias based on looting and economic extraction when new territory is taken. This works when it advances, but as the paramilitaries retreat back into areas largely stripped of their monetary value, as is currently the case, it has triggered fresh waves of violence targeting civilians. As the frontlines remain fluid, women have become repeatedly vulnerable to sexual violence from different forces, compounding their trauma.
 
Another shifting dynamic of the war is likely to place women in more direct danger in the coming months-- the 'militia-sization' of the conflict. Both the RSF and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) are coalitions, with varied and fluid command-and-control within each force. Much of the fighting being carried out under the SAF auspices is increasingly undertaken by Islamist militias such as the Al-Bara' ibn Malik Battalion and Eritrean-trained forces from eastern Sudan. The RSF meanwhile draws its strength from militias from Sahelian transnational tribes with distinct and overlapping interests. Further fragmentation of the conflict, which also opens the door for increased proxy activity, will make any peace process far harder, lengthening the violence and allowing dozens of militias to continue to act with near-total impunity.
 
The question of impunity for sexual violence remains a significant concern with the total breakdown of civilian protection alongside international disinterest. While there remains a degree of stigma in reporting these crimes, there are growing initiatives to monitor them, such as the Peace for Sudan Platform, which encompasses over 49 women's organisations. The initiative also advocates for women's participation in sustainable peacebuilding. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is currently collecting information on war crimes in Sudan, but there remains an absence of a robust legal framework to hold perpetrators accountable and provide justice to the women who suffer in silence. Documentation efforts are, therefore, not just about exposing the present horrors—they are about ensuring these crimes are not erased, and the voices of Sudanese women are heard in the pursuit of justice and accountability. The international community needs to be more forceful about finding ways of supporting grassroots women's initiatives in Sudan, many of which have emerged from the remnants of the 2018-2019 revolution.
 
Yet this war cannot be resolved by civilians alone; it is an internationalised proxy conflict being directed from multiple foreign capitals. But achieving lasting peace that can move beyond the cycles of conflict and violence in Sudan, and finding a more equitable future for women will depend on inclusive efforts to hammer out what a post-war 'Sudan' might look like. These questions and debates range from transitional justice to the form of political system the country should adopt. Tokenistic inclusion of women on the sidelines of dormant international peace processes does not cut it. One hundred and twenty-seven years on from the Al-Matama suicides, little has changed, with yet another conflict in Sudan resulting in yet more atrocities carried out against women and girls.

By the Horn Edition Team