3.9.1. Violence against women and girls

Table of contents

COMMON ANALYSIS
Last update: June 2025

The analysis below is based on the following EUAA COI reports and query: Country Focus 2024, 2.5.1., 2.5.2., 2.5.3.; Country Focus 2025, 2.5., 2.6. (a) (b); Security 2025, 1.2.1. (b), 1.3.1. (a) (e), 1.3.2.(a), 2.4.2. (a) (b), 2.4.3.; COI Update 2025, 4.. Country Guidance should not be referred to as a source of COI.

  Step 1: Do the reported acts amount to persecution?  

Some acts to which women and girls in Sudan could be exposed are of such severe nature that they would amount to persecution. In particular, they have reportedly been subjected to intimate partner and domestic violence as well as sexual violence, the latter historically used as a weapon of war to terrorise communities. Reports indicate that conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), including rape, child rape of children as young as one year old, gang-rape, and sexual slavery, is committed by both warring parties, and systematically by the RSF accounting for 80% of the documented cases.

Sources also document cases of enforced disappearances, abductions, kidnappings for ransom, including eyewitness accounts of 'women and girls chained up and taken away'. Victims detained by the RSF have reportedly been held in inhumane or degrading conditions.

Victims of GBV are often rejected by their families and communities, leaving them vulnerable to further violence.

Pattern of killings involving unarmed individuals who were attempting to protect their female relatives from sexual violence by the RSF are also reported. Sexual violence incidents often take place in the presence of relatives, including children, who are also subjected to lashing and beatings.

The severity and/or repetitiveness of other acts that women and girls in Sudan could be subjected to, and whether they occur as an accumulation of various measures, should also be considered. Due to the breakdown of the country's institutions women and girls can be denied legal permission for abortion, including for cases of pregnancies as a result of rape, and thus forced to undergo unsafe abortion outside medical facilities. Moreover, women are denied equality of rights regarding property and inheritance laws, both under Sharia and customary practices.

  Step 2: What is the level of risk of persecution?  

For women and girls from conflict-affected areas7, a well-founded fear of persecution would in general be substantiated, in light of the widespread use of CRSV as a weapon of war and the general impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators. See also 3.1. Ethnic groups. For more details about the presence and influence of the actors of persecution in Sudan please see 2.1. Map: areas of control and influence under 2. Actors of persecution and serious harm, and Presence, methods and tactics under a) Security situation in Sudan.

In areas non affected by the conflict, the individual assessment of whether there is a reasonable degree of likelihood for women and girls to face persecution should take into account risk-impacting circumstances, such as:

  • Displacement: women and girls on the move and in transition points, and more generally IDP women and girls living in IDP sites, are most vulnerable to GBV threats and exploitation.

  • Socio-economic situation: women and girls from lower-income backgrounds are more vulnerable to sexual violence due to economic constraints and lack of alternatives. Additionally, single women or women at the head of a household, without a male or social network, are more vulnerable to GBV.

  • Political profile: women activists, journalists, and protesters perceived as critical are at high risk of physical, psychological, and sexual violence, including state-sanctioned torture, enforced disappearances, and inhumane treatment in detention. Female human rights defenders and women advocating for gender equality face targeted repression, including public harassment, surveillance, and imprisonment.

    See also 3.5. Community leaders, human rights activists, and lawyers, 3.6. Journalists and other media workers.

  Step 3: Is there a ground for persecution?  

Persecution of women and girls from conflict affected areas is highly likely to be for reasons of (imputed) political opinion, race and/or nationality, due to their or their relatives’ (perceived) affiliation with the opposing warring party, and the widespread use of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) as a weapon of war by both warring parties, including as a part of ‘ethnic cleansing’ by the RSF and allies. See also 3.1. Ethnic groups and 3.6. Journalists and other media workers, 3.7. Humanitarian and healthcare workers, 3.8. Civilians from areas associated with the opposing warring party. Membership of a particular social group8 may also apply.

For other women and girls under this sub-profile, where a well-founded fear of persecution is substantiated, in relation to GBV, this is highly likely to be for reasons of membership of a particular social group9. For example, survivors of sexual violence may be subjected to persecution because of their common background (past sexual abuse) and their distinct identity in Sudan (stigmatisation by their communities and families due to perceived dishonour associated with sexual violence). Additionally, other grounds such as (imputed) political opinion may also apply. See 3.6. Journalists and other media workers, 3.7. Humanitarian and helthcare workers.