Women struggling to survive in the war-torn Sudanese city of Omdurman report being coerced into sex with soldiers in exchange for food.
Over two dozen women who have been unable to escape the conflict in Omdurman stated that engaging in sexual acts with members of the Sudanese army is their only means to obtain food or goods to sell for money to support their families.
Most assaults occur in the city’s “factories area,” where food is most readily available.
One victim shared that she had no choice but to have sex with soldiers to provide for her elderly parents and 18-year-old daughter.
“Both of my parents are too old and sick and I never let my daughter go out to look for food,” she said. “I went to the soldiers and that was the only way to get food – they were everywhere in the factories area.”
The woman recounted being coerced into sex with soldiers at a meat-processing factory in May last year, shortly after Sudan’s civil war erupted between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. She endured a similar ordeal at a warehouse storing fava beans this January.
Before the conflict, the 37-year-old, who appeared pale and thin during interviews, worked as a maid for affluent families in Omdurman. However, she was too poor to flee the city with her family when the war began.
According to the United Nations, the conflict in Sudan has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and displaced over 10 million people. A recent UN-backed report stated that nearly 26 million people, or just over half the population, are experiencing severe “acute food insecurity.”
Reports of rape by armed men surfaced within days of the conflict’s onset on April 15, 2023. Numerous accounts have documented RSF fighters committing systematic sexual violence in the Khartoum area and in Darfur, where the RSF now controls all but one major population center.
One woman said after having sex with soldiers she was permitted to take food, kitchen equipment and perfumes from empty houses. She spoke of her shame at the sexual assault she was forced to endure and being reduced to stealing property to survive.
“I am not a thief,” she said. “What I went through is indescribable, I would not wish it on an enemy … I only did it because I wanted to feed my children.”
Aid organisations have struggled to supply food to people in desperate need around the country and, although the UN’s World Food Programme said recently it had made deliveries to the Khartoum area, the women said they had not seen any international aid coming into their neighbourhoods.
A resident of a neighborhood in west Omdurman said he had seen soldiers bringing women to houses belonging to people who had fled. “A lot of women come and queue outside our neighborhood,” he said. “The soldiers let them enter and choose those they like the look of to enter houses. I sometimes hear screaming but what can you do? Nothing.”