.
Since the onset of the armed conflict between the SAF and the RSF in April 2023, the risk of SGBV has seen an ‘alarming rise’ throughout the country’s conflict-affected areas,486with the number of people at risk rising by 350 % between the beginning of the conflict in 2023 and June 2025, and by 80% over the previous year alone.487 Sources reported evidence of SGBV being committed by both the RSF and the SAF,488 and their allied militias,489 with the vast majority of documented cases attributed to members of the RSF.490 The UN FFM noted that SGBV by the RSF was used on a ‘large-scale’ and found that the conduct ‘formed part of a widespread and systematic attack against civilians’.491 On 31 March 2026, Ruth Kauffman, emergency health manager for Doctors Without Borders (MSF), stated that ‘sexual violence is a defining feature of this conflict – not confined to frontlines, but pervasive across communities’.492
Sexual violence is used as a weapon of war,493 notably by the RSF targeting women and girls perceived to be of non-Arab ethnicity494 – such as Masalit,495 Fur, Zaghawa, Tunjur496, Berti497– and/or perceived to be supporting the SAF.498 For additional information see section 2.5 Ethnic groups.
Sexual violence took the form of rape, mass rape, gang rape, sexual assault, abduction, sexual exploitation, sexualised torture, sexual harassment, forced nudity, and forced and child marriage, with both the RSF and the SAF implicated.499 In some cases, sexual violence resulted in the death of the victim.500 Documented victims of sexual violence were children as young as one year old501 and women as old as 70 years old502.
In 2025, SIHA Network described a pattern of ‘three waves of violence’ in relation to sexual violence by the RSF. The first wave takes place during the takeover of an area, when RSF members and allies resort to widespread rape and gang rape of women and girls. The second wave of violence occurs in areas under RSF control, with sexual violence targeting women visible in public spaces, and rape and gang rape taking place in the street.503 The third wave of violence relates to the abduction of women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation,504 as well as forced marriage.505 The UN FFM noted that sexual violence against women and girls also continued during flight.506
The pattern of widespread and systematic use of sexual violence against women and girls of non-Arab ethnicity by the RSF and their allies has been reported during the reference period in North Darfur (El Fasher and surrounding areas),507 South Darfur (Nyala and surroundings),508 West Darfur (El Geneina and surroundings),509 North Kordofan,510 West Kordofan,511 and South Kordofan.512 For information on SGBV committed by the RSF during the previous reporting periods see 2.6.(b) of the EUAA Sudan Report – Country Focus (February 2025) and section 2.5.2 of the EUAA Sudan report – Country Focus (April 2024).
The United Nations Independent Fact-finding Mission to the Sudan (UN FFM) reported that sexual violence was also committed by members of the SAF in White Nile, Blue Nile, Khartoum and Northern State, including rape, sexual harassment, and sexualised torture, including in detention. Further, CRSV perpetrated by the SAF appeared to be underreported for fear of retaliation.513
The Council of Europe (CoE) in its resolution 1468 of 2005 defines forced marriage as ‘the union of two persons at least one of whom has not given their full and free consent to the marriage.’ In the same resolution, child marriage is defined as ‘the union of two persons at least one of whom is under 18 years of age’.514
While article 15 of the Sudanese interim constitution of Sudan of 2005 states that ‘no marriage shall be entered into without the free and full consent of its parties’,515 the Personal Status Law for Muslims of 1991 does not define a minimum age of marriage, only mentioning puberty for women under section 34(1) and section 40(3), stating that a minor cannot be married without the permission of a judge.516 Some sources noted that minority for a woman in this context was understood as under 10 years of age,517 but this age does not appear to be explicitly stated in the Personal Status Law for Muslims.518
In November 2020, the Sudanese transitional government agreed to lift Sudan’s reservations to the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, including a reservation on child marriage.519 The Sudanese transitional government also approved a National Strategy and Action Plan for Ending Child Marriage (2020-2030) in Sudan. However, these initiatives were halted before resulting in legal reforms following the military coup in October 2021 and the subsequent war.520
According to UNICEF’s most recent Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey data (2014), the percentage of women aged 20-24 married or in union before the age of 18 in Sudan was 34 %.521 A 2022 UNICEF Fact Sheet on child marriage in the MENA region noted that ‘the prevalence of female carers age 20-24 years who married at or before age 15 was 26.6 %’.522 UNOCHA’s Sudan Humanitarian Update of June-July 2025 noted that ‘child marriage remains a significant problem’.523 A 2025 research study conducted in Kassala state noted that child marriage had increased in the state as a consequence of the conflict, including due to returning to villages with stronger norms and customs.524 Other sources noted that families were using child marriage as a ‘coping mechanism’ in facing financial issues and access to education.525
The UN FFM noted reports of forced marriages of girls as young as 12 involving members of the RSF, with instances of coercion, including ‘killing or injuring family members’ and threats against family members.526 Forced marriage was often committed by members of the RSF in areas under the control of the paramilitary group.527 Out of the 985 documented cases of SGBV by SIHA Network between January and December 2025, 9 % were cases of child marriage.528
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons’.529
While FGM was criminalised in Sudan in July 2020, and the law provides a penalty of ‘three years’ imprisonment and a fine or closing of the premises where the FGM took place’,530 it remained ‘widely practiced’531. FGM is reported to be a deeply rooted practice in Sudan. 532 Studies show a slight shift from the most prevalent type III to type I,533 as well as variations in the age at which it is performed, and the medicalisation of the procedure, being performed by trained medical professionals.534
Due to the on-going conflict there were no recent figures on FGM in Sudan.535 The latest comprehensive data set found on FGM in Sudan dates back to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) of 2014, conducted by the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics, which noted that the practice was highly prevalent, with 86.6 % of women age 15-49 years reportedly having undergone FGM.536
In a 2022 report the FGM/C Research Initiative and Thomson Reuters Foundation did not find evidence of any judicial prosecution of FGM.537 In 2022, the independent media outlet Assafir Al-Arabi reported on an incident in which a person who sought to report a case of FGM to the police after the law criminalising FGM had been passed, was dismissed by the police officer at the station.538
For information specific to FGM on persons with diverse sex characteristics see section (c) under 2.8.2. Treatment by the authorities and societal attitudes.
The SAF reportedly held women in prisons on accusations of collaboration with the RSF, while the RSF is reported to have transferred detainees, including women, to Darfur.539 Some of the women detained by the SAF were facing death sentences, in instances on accusation of ‘collaboration with the RSF’.540
The UN FFM noted that arrests conducted by the SAF in areas they retook or at their checkpoints were mainly on the suspicion of collaboration with the RSF and lacked due process.541 The UN FFM also reported on the detention of civilians by the RSF in areas under their control.542
Early 2026, the RSF was keeping over six-hundred women in detention in Korea prison in Nyala, South Darfur, including some pregnant and some with their children. Detention conditions within the prison were reported as dire and included incidents of exploitation of detainees.543 The RSF denied these allegations.544 In March 2026 three Sudanese female journalist and several women activists were arrested and detained without formal charges by the RSF in Nyala.545
Over 840 women, including pregnant women, had been detained by the SAF between August 2024 and December 2025 in Wad Madani, Gedaref, Port Sudan and Dilling, on accusations of collaboration with the RSF. The report noted that the number of women under RSF detention was unknown.546
On 9 January 2026, Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan announced the immediate release of four-hundred women detained in Omdurman prison on public order charges, including mothers detained with their children, and the dropping of all charges against them, as well as the review of cases of women detained on allegations of cooperation with the RSF.547
In early February 2026, two women were sentenced to death by stoning on charges of ‘adultery’ in Greater Khartoum and Blue Nile.548 On 24 February 2026, the Court of Appeal reportedly reversed the sentence handed down in the Blue Nile State.549
- 486
UN Women, The impact of Sudan’s war on women, two years on, 15 April 2025, url
- 487
UNFPA, Sudan Emergency Situation report #21, 23 July 2025, url
- 488
UN HRC, Sudan: A war of atrocities, Report of the independent international fact-finding mission for the Sudan, A/HRC/60/22, 5 September 2025, url; UN OHCHR, Situation of Human Rights in the Sudan, A/HRC/61/24, 13 January 2026, url, para. 55
- 489
UN OHCHR, Situation of Human Rights in the Sudan, A/HRC/61/24, 13 January 2026, url, para. 55
- 490
SIHA Network, More than numbers – report on the state of violence against women and girls in Sudan 2023-2025, 10 December 2025, url, p. 8; UN HRC, Sudan: A war of atrocities, Report of the independent international fact-finding mission for the Sudan, A/HRC/60/22, 5 September 2025, url
- 491
UN HRC, Sudan: A war of atrocities, Report of the independent international fact-finding mission for the Sudan, A/HRC/60/22, 5 September 2025, url, para. 68-70
- 492
MSF, MSF report finds there are no safe places for women and girls in Darfur, 31 March 2026, url
- 493
UNFPA, “As widespread as guns and bullets”: Sexual violence used to terrorize Sudan’s women and girls, 19 June 2025, url, para. 3; FIDH, “We were threatened with rape and violence for being Masalit” from persecution in Sudan to precarity and insecurity in Chadian camps, December 2025, url; SIHA Network, More than numbers – report on the state of violence against women and girls in Sudan 2023-2025, 10 December 2025, url, p. 13
- 494
UN HRC, Sudan: A war of atrocities, Report of the independent international fact-finding mission for the Sudan, A/HRC/60/22, 5 September 2025, url, para. 64; UN HRC, Hallmarks of Genocide in El-Fasher, Report of the Independent international fact-finding mission for the Sudan, A/HRC/61/77, 17 February 2026, url, para. 73; SIHA Network, More than numbers – report on the state of violence against women and girls in Sudan 2023-2025, 10 December 2025, url, p. 14
- 495
FIDH, “We were threatened with rape and violence for being Masalit” from persecution in Sudan to precarity and insecurity in Chadian camps, December 2025, url; UN HRC, Hallmarks of Genocide in El-Fasher, Report of the Independent international fact-finding mission for the Sudan, A/HRC/61/77, 17 February 2026, url, para. 19
- 496
SIHA Network, More than numbers – report on the state of violence against women and girls in Sudan 2023-2025, 10 December 2025, url, p. 14; UN HRC, Sudan: A war of atrocities, Report of the independent international fact-finding mission for the Sudan, A/HRC/60/22, 5 September 2025, url, para. 30
- 497
SIHA Network, More than numbers – report on the state of violence against women and girls in Sudan 2023-2025, 10 December 2025, url, p. 14
- 498
UN HRC, Hallmarks of Genocide in El-Fasher, Report of the Independent international fact-finding mission for the Sudan, A/HRC/61/77, 17 February 2026, url, para. 73
- 499
UN HRC, Sudan: A war of atrocities, Report of the independent international fact-finding mission for the Sudan, A/HRC/60/22, 5 September 2025, url, paras. 58, 66; SIHA Network, More than numbers – report on the state of violence against women and girls in Sudan 2023-2025, 10 December 2025, url, p. 12
- 500
UN OHCHR, Situation of Human Rights in the Sudan, A/HRC/61/24, 13 January 2026, url, para. 56
- 501
UNICEF, Sudan a crisis of sexual violence against children, 2 March 2025, url, p. 2
- 502
UN HRC, Sudan: Hallmarks of Genocide in El-Fasher, Report of the independent international fact-finding mission for the Sudan, Sudan, A/HRC/61/77, 17 February 2026, url, para. 72
- 503
SIHA Network, More than numbers – report on the state of violence against women and girls in Sudan 2023-2025, 10 December 2025, url, p. 13
- 504
SIHA Network, More than numbers – report on the state of violence against women and girls in Sudan 2023-2025, 10 December 2025, url, p. 13
- 505
SIHA Network, More than numbers – report on the state of violence against women and girls in Sudan 2023-2025, 10 December 2025, url, p. 13; UN HRC, Sudan, Sudan: A war of atrocities, Report of the independent international fact-finding mission for the Sudan A/HRC/60/22, 5 September 2025, url, para. 58
- 506
UN HRC, Sudan: Hallmarks of Genocide in El-Fasher, Report of the independent international fact-finding mission for the Sudan, A/HRC/61/77, 17 February 2026, url, para. 77
- 507
UN HRC, Sudan: Hallmarks of Genocide in El-Fasher, Report of the independent international fact-finding mission for the Sudan, A/HRC/61/77, 17 February 2026, url, paras. 19, 20, 34, 72, 73, 77
- 508
ACJPS, South Darfur State: Internally Displaced women and girls have been targeted and subjected to sexual assault by armed individuals in Nyala town, 2 Octobre 2025, url; Darfur24, Three displaced women killed as violence against women escalates in South Darfur, 13 October 2025, url
- 509
FIDH, “We were threatened with rape and violence for being Masalit” from persecution in Sudan to precarity and insecurity in Chadian camps, December 2025, url, pp. 4, 6; UN HRC, Sudan: Hallmarks of Genocide in El-Fasher, Report of the independent international fact-finding mission for the Sudan, A/HRC/61/77, 17 February 2026, url, para. 19
- 510
SIHA Network, Unchecked brutality in Barah, North Kordofan: testimonies uncover systematic violence against women and girls, 20 November 2025, url; Sudan Tribune, Sudanese doctors reveals hundreds of civilians killed, 57 women raped in Sudan’s Barra, Babnousa, 20 November 2025, url
- 511
Sudan Tribune, Sudanese doctors reveals hundreds of civilians killed, 57 women raped in Sudan’s Barra, Babnousa, 20 November 2025, url
- 512
Adala Project and SIHA Network, Out of sight: sexual violence and ethnic targeting in the Nuba mountains/South Kordofan, 8 August 2025, url
- 513
UN HRC, Sudan: A war of atrocities, Report of the Independent international fact-finding mission for the Sudan, A/HRC/60/22, 5 September 2025, url, para. 66
- 514
CoE, Parliamentary Assembly Resolution 1468, 2005, url
- 515
Sudan, The Interim National Constitution of the Republic of the Sudan, 2005, article 15 (1), url
- 516
UNDP, Sudan – Gender Justice & The Law, 2018, url p. 9; Personal Status Laws; Girls Not Brides, Sudan, n,d, url, section on minimum legal framework around marriage; Equality Now, Sudan – the Muslim Personal Law Act of Sudan, 1991, n.d., url; Kakal, Tasneem et al., Intersecting injustices: child marriage and the law in conflict-affected Sudan, International journal for equity in health vol. 24, 27 Nov. 2025, url, p. 2 in Background
- 517
UNICEF, Sudan – Regional Study on child marriage, 2017, url, p. 5; Kakal, Tasneem et al., Intersecting injustices: child marriage and the law in conflict-affected Sudan, International journal for equity in health vol. 24, 27 Nov. 2025, url, p. 2 in Background; Girls Not Brides, Sudan, n,d, url , section on minimum legal framework around marriage
- 518
Sudan, قانون الأحوال الشخصية للمسلمين لسنة 1991م ـ قانون السودان [Personal Status Law for the Muslims of 1991 – Law of the Sudan] url, art 34(1)), and 40(3); Equality Now, Sudan – the Muslim Personal Law Act of Sudan, 1991, n.d., url
- 519
UNICEF Sudan, Gender annual report 2020, url, p. 4; The Guardian, Sudan says it will stamp out child marriage and enforce ban on FGM, 27 November 2020, url
- 520
UNICEF Sudan, Gender annual report 2020, url, p. 4; Kakal, Tasneem et al., Intersecting injustices: child marriage and the law in conflict-affected Sudan, International journal for equity in health vol. 24, 27 Nov. 2025, url, p. 3
- 521
UNICEF, Data Warehouse, Sudan – percentage of women (aged 20-24 years) married or in union before age 18, url
- 522
UNICEF, Child marriage in the Middle East and North Africa, February 2022, url, p. 2
- 523
UNOCHA, Sudan Humanitarian Update June-July 2025, n.d., url, p. 4
- 524
Kakal, Tasneem et al., Intersecting injustices: child marriage and the law in conflict-affected Sudan, International journal for equity in health vol. 24, 27 Nov. 2025, url, p. 5
- 525
ACAPS, Sudan Impact of the conflict on children, 17 November 2023 url, p. 9; SIHA Network, More than numbers – report on the state of violence against women and girls in Sudan 2023-2025, 10 December 2025, url, p. 19
- 526
UN OHCHR, Accelerating action for Sudanese women amid conflict – Statement by the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan, 7 March 2025, url; UN HRC, Sudan: A war of atrocities, Report of the independent Fact-finding Mission to the Sudan, A/HRC/60/22, 22 September 2025, url, para. 63
- 527
SIHA Network, More than numbers – report on the state of violence against women and girls in Sudan 2023-2025, 10 December 2025, url, p. 19; The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, Forced marriage in Sudan: a silent crime perpetrated in war and peace, 21 November 2024, url
- 528
SIHA Network, More than numbers – report on the state of violence against women and girls in Sudan 2023-2025, 10 December 2025, url, p. 12
- 529
WHO, Eliminating Female genital mutilation: An interagency statement, 2008, url, p. 4
- 530
FGMCRI, Sudan: The law and FGM, March 2022, url pp. 3, 5
- 531
Tadwein & Equality Now, Female Genital Mutilation amongst Sudanese Migrants in Greater Cairo: perceptions and trends, May 2025, url, pp. 9, 11
- 532
Tadwein & Equality Now, Female Genital Mutilation amongst Sudanese Migrants in Greater Cairo: perceptions and trends, May 2025, url, p.p. 7, 9; Bedri, N., et al., Shifts in FGM/C practice in Sudan: communities’ perspectives and drivers, BMC Women's Health, 30 December 2019, url
- 533
For further information on the types of FGM/C, see Tadwein & Equality Now, Female Genital Mutilation amongst Sudanese Migrants in Greater Cairo: perceptions and trends, May 2025, url, p. 8
- 534
UNICEF, Female Genital Mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and child marriage in Sudan – are there any changes taking place? , June 2016, url, p. 22; Tadwein & Equality Now, Female Genital Mutilation amongst Sudanese Migrants in Greater Cairo: perceptions and trends, May 2025, url, p. 10; Bedri, N. et al, Shifts in FGM/C practice in Sudan: communities’ perspectives and drivers, BMC Women's Health, 30 December 2019, url
- 535
Tadwein & Equality Now, Female Genital Mutilation amongst Sudanese Migrants in Greater Cairo: perceptions and trends, May 2025, url, p. 6
- 536
Sudan, Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2014 Final Report, February 2016, url, p. 214
- 537
FGMCRI and Thomson Reuters Foundation, Sudan: the law and FGM, July 2018 updated March 2022, url p. 6
- 538
Assafir Al-Arabi, Criminalizing Female Genital Mutilation in Sudan: an ongoing battle, 2 August 2022, url
- 539
Sudan Tribune, Sudanese Army, RSF detain women in ongoing conflict, 20 May 2025, url; SIHA Network, More than numbers – report on the state of violence against women and girls in Sudan 2023-2025, 10 December 2025, url, p. 21
- 540
SIHA Network, More than numbers – report on the state of violence against women and girls in Sudan 2023-2025, 10 December 2025, url, p. 21; International Service for Human Rights, Sudan: over 25 women face charges that could lead to execution, 14 April 2025, url
- 541
UN HRC, Sudan: A war of atrocities, Report of the independent international fact-finding mission for the Sudan, A/HRC/60/22, 5 September 2025, url, para. 51
- 542
UN HRC, Sudan: A war of atrocities, Report of the independent international fact-finding mission for the Sudan, A/HRC/60/22, 5 September 2025, url, para. 45
- 543
Darfur24, الدعم السريع يحتجز600 امرأة في معتقلات بجنوب دارفور [The Rapid Support Forces detain 600 women in detention centers in South Darfur], 5 January 2026, url; Türkiye Today, New report details detention of more than 600 women in Darfur prison, 5 January 2026, url; ACJPS, Sudan war: at least 643 women arbitrarily detained in Korea prison in Nyala, South Darfur, 3 March 2026, url
- 544
Darfur24, RSF denies detaining women in Nyala prison amid contradictory reports, 7 January 2026, url; The Sudan Times, RSF denies claims of women being held in Nyala prison, 8 January 2026, url; Rapid Support Forces, The RSF denies misleading media reports alleging the detention of civilians by its members in Darfur, 27 January 2026, url
- 545
Committee for Justice, Sudan: Committee for Justice condemns the arrest of women activists in Nyala following their participations in a workshop on women’s rights, calls for their immediate release, 8 March 2026, url; CPJ, RSF paramilitary group detains 3 female journalists in Sudan’s Darfur, 16 March 2026, url
- 546
SIHA Network, More than numbers – report on the state of violence against women and girls in Sudan 2023-2025, 10 December 2025, url, p. 21
- 547
Abdul-Fattah Al Burhan, X, 9 January 2026, url; Sudan Tribune, Al-Burhan orders release of 400 female inmates from Omdurman prison, 10 January 2026, url
- 548
Dabanga Sudan, Two women from El Gedaref and Blue Nile face death by stoning in Sudan prison, 4 February 2026, url; SIHA Network, Gender Alert, 13 February 2026, url; ACJPS, Sudanese courts sentence two women to death by stoning for adultery despite international obligations; 13 February 2026, url
- 549
ACJPS, Update: Sudanese courts sentence two women to death by stoning, 25 February 2026, url