Gang rape and murder: Heartbreaking testimonies from victims of the Rapid Support Forces militia in Sudan

In a modest room in Khartoum, a young woman named Mariam—a pseudonym—sits, enveloped in an aura of pain. She trembles between silent sobs, struggling to find the words to recount what happened to her. But every attempt to speak is met with a wall of fear and an inability to express herself. In Sudan, women and girls subjected to sexual violence and enduring trauma face a double nightmare: the stigma and social ostracism that intensify their suffering and force victims to hide behind walls of silence. As the humanitarian crisis in the country continues, Asmaa Mohamed, a correspondent for Al Jazeera, uncovered, through a shocking investigation, the systematic sexual abuse of women and girls amidst the fierce political and military conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces. This conflict makes no distinction between the suffering of the innocent and the hopes yet unborn. Mariam's story reflects pure horror. She was seeking refuge from the horrors of war that engulfed Gezira State, heading to Khartoum at the beginning of last year. But even the escape route from the inferno was not safe. At a military checkpoint, in a desolate desert location at sunset, the convoy of those fleeing hell came to a halt, a moment that would forever define Mariam's life. That day, the checkpoint was no ordinary security post. Mariam recounts, with palpable tension and pain, the memories of that horrific night: two soldiers pulled her from the car and led her into an empty room furnished only with a mattress. What followed was a double assault that mercilessly violated her body and soul. Mariam returned to the car, distraught. The passengers' stares were nothing more than an attempt to ignore the tragedy they had witnessed, powerless to act. Her relative, who was with her, said: "She recounted what happened to her in excruciating detail and identified her attackers—soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces—before taking Mariam to a doctor to seek treatment for the deep wounds, which were not all physical." And the stories don't end there; in El Fasher, the suffering seems determined to persist in even more brutal forms. Umm Kulthum, a medical student (a pseudonym), recounts her ordeal through tears. She describes how the Rapid Support Forces stormed her family home and killed her uncle, who was like a father to her. The tragedy didn't end there; at the time, four girls, including Umm Kulthum and her neighbors, were in the house. She continues, her voice heavy with sorrow: "We were all brutally raped, without exception." Between war and social abuses, these women find themselves trapped in a vicious cycle where individual suffering transforms into an ongoing human tragedy, a voice that must reach the world.