Sudan civil war: Women raped by RSF fighters in Gezira state commit suicide, activists say

A brutal power struggle between the army and the RSF has killed tens of thousands of people and forced more than 11 million people from their homes since the conflict began in April 2023.

The head of the UN’s World Food Program, Cindy McCain, visited the humanitarian center in Port Sudan this week and told the BBC that the country could become the victim of the biggest humanitarian crisis in history if a ceasefire is not reached.

She warned that millions of people could die of starvation.

Reports of paramilitaries on the rampage in Gezira followed the recent defection to the army of Abu Aqla Qaik, the RSF’s top commander in the state.

“The RSF has launched a campaign of revenge in areas controlled by Abu Kayza. They looted, killed civilians who resisted, and raped women and little girls,” Hala al-Karib (Siha), head of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa, told the BBC.

Siha, which has been documenting gender-based violence in Sudan during the war, has confirmed three suicides of women in the past week in Gezira state, she said.

Ms Karib said two were in the village of Al Seriha and the third in the town of Ruffa.

The sister of the woman who committed suicide in the village told Siha that it happened after she was raped by RSF soldiers in front of her father and brother. Later, these two men were killed.

Over the past week, a series of videos have surfaced online that appear to show dozens of blanket-wrapped bodies of victims of the alleged RSF massacre in Al-Serikha.

BBC Verify managed to match the location of the shooting with the courtyard of the mosque in Al-Seriha.

Evidence of suicides came from only two areas out of about 50 villages recently attacked, Ms. Karib said, adding that the number could be higher because cellphone coverage was patchy.

A female activist from Gezira, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she feared for her life, told the BBC that she had corroborated accounts of women who took their own lives after their husbands were killed by the RSF.

She saw a WhatsApp message from one woman who described how her sister committed suicide after being raped by RSF militiamen who also killed five of her brothers and several of her uncles also in Al-Seriha.

But like Siha, she said it was impossible to verify social media reports of mass suicides by women who feared rape because of communication problems.

An 80-page UN report on Tuesday said at least 400 people had been documented as survivors of conflict-related sexual violence between the start of the conflict and July 2024, with the actual figure being much higher.

“The sheer scale of sexual violence we have documented in Sudan is staggering,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, head of the UN team that compiled the report.

The ages of the documented victims ranged from 8 to 75, many of them in need of treatment, but most hospitals and clinics were destroyed during the fighting, the UN said.

RSF spokesman Nizar Syed Ahmed told the BBC: “These allegations are false and have no basis in evidence.

“To find out the facts on the ground, the UN should send a fact-finding team to Sudan,” he said.

Ms Karib told the BBC that Sikha had tried to keep in touch with six women who feared an attack by the RSF and were considering suicide.

She said Siha is providing psychological support to them as activists try to find a way to move them to safer places.

She also said that they are trying to help a 13-year-old girl who was gang-raped by RSF fighters in Gezira and needs urgent medical attention.

According to her, the girl was currently traveling on the road from her native village north of Ruffa to the city of New Halfa and was bleeding profusely.

Additional reporting by the BBC’s Ann Soi and BBC Verify’s Peter Mwai.