Three years into Sudan’s brutal civil war between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), a bombshell new report from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has laid bare the systematic use of sexual violence as a weapon of war, placing the overwhelming majority of documented abuses at the feet of the RSF and its allied militias. The analysis, which covers the period from the outbreak of open conflict in April 2023 through mid-April 2026, documents 546 verified incidents of conflict-related sexual violence across 16 of Sudan’s 18 states, impacting at least 838 people—most of whom are women and girls. The UN’s findings confirm that these acts are not isolated crimes of war, but coordinated, widespread tactics that may rise to the level of crimes against humanity and even genocide.
According to the report’s verified data, 87 percent of all documented sexual violence incidents were carried out by men in RSF uniforms, affiliated fighters, and allied Arab militias. While smaller numbers of abuses were also linked to the SAF, associated security groups, the Joint Forces, and other armed movements, the scale and planning of RSF-perpetrated violence stands apart. The report outlines a clear pattern of coordinated operations: perpetrators arrive in armed convoys, divide operational roles—with some securing locations while others carry out assaults—and target communities along ethnic and political lines. More than 25 percent of verified incidents are gang rapes, in some cases involving 10 or more attackers assaulting a single victim. At least 85 women and girls were held as sexual slaves, forced to complete unpaid domestic labor for fighters and in some cases coerced into generating income for their captors. Many victims were chained, blindfolded, and held hundreds of kilometers from their homes, with at least 59 confirmed pregnancies resulting from rape.
Ethnic targeting has been a central feature of the violence, the report confirms. In West Darfur, Masalit women were explicitly forced to identify their tribe before being assaulted, with perpetrators stating they aimed to force Masalit women to bear the children of Arab fighters. During the 2025 RSF offensive on the internally displaced persons camp at Zamzam, women were targeted based on whether their male relatives were affiliated with the SAF, with sexual assault used as punishment and intimidation. Zaghawa women and girls were disproportionately targeted during the RSF’s final 2025 offensive on el-Fasher. The report documents grotesque, firsthand accounts of atrocities: one victim saw her mother shot dead after begging for her daughter’s safety, before the daughter was gang-raped; another child witnessed her younger sister gang-raped to death. Even in detention facilities across seven states, sexual violence is rampant, with men making up an unusually high 20 percent of victims in these cases, including one Masalit man who died in 2025 from untreated injuries and psychological trauma sustained during sexual torture in RSF custody.
OHCHR concluded there are reasonable grounds to confirm the RSF and its allies have committed widespread war crimes across Darfur, including rape, sexual slavery, torture, and cruel treatment. The coordinated, geographically widespread pattern of abuses in hotspots including El Geneina, Ardamata, Zamzam camp, and el-Fasher meets the threshold for systematic, widespread attacks on civilian populations, meaning these acts may also qualify as crimes against humanity. These findings echo a February 2026 conclusion from the UN fact-finding mission in Sudan that the RSF’s capture of el-Fasher bears the hallmarks of genocide, with sexual violence as a core component of the assault that targeted females ranging in age from 7 to 70 years old, including pregnant women.
Beyond documenting the violence itself, the report highlights the critical danger of persistent impunity for perpetrators. Only 48 of the 546 verified incidents have ever been reported to law enforcement, and just two have moved to formal investigation. In areas under RSF control, no functional formal justice system exists to prosecute abusers. The report also criticizes the SAF: a 2024 amnesty offer for RSF defectors did not explicitly exclude those responsible for sexual violence, creating a pathway for perpetrators to avoid prosecution. In one disturbing case, a woman who was held and sexually assaulted by the RSF was later charged with collaboration by SAF-aligned security forces, and at least one woman has been sentenced to death on similar false charges.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk emphasized that unchecked impunity is deepening harm and locking Sudan into a decades-long cycle of violence. “Sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war. This is a war crime and, if committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack, a crime against humanity,” Turk said. “All perpetrators, including those exercising command responsibility, must be held fully accountable, and victims must be guaranteed access to effective remedy, including reparation.”
The release of the report coincides with growing international alarm over the RSF’s ongoing offensive on el-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, where sustained drone strikes have targeted civilian infrastructure, including key supply routes, fuel stations, and power grids. More than 500,000 people, including 200,000 internally displaced persons, have been cut off from access to basic services. On the same day the OHCHR report was published, six European nations—France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom—issued a joint warning that the atrocities witnessed in el-Fasher must not be repeated in el-Obeid, which UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper called “on the precipice of an atrocity.”
While the joint statement called out unnamed external actors fueling the conflict, it stopped short of naming the United Arab Emirates, which has been widely documented as a key backer of the RSF. The UAE has repeatedly denied providing weapons or support to the RSF, but multiple independent investigations since mid-2023 have confirmed weapons transfers to the RSF via a dedicated airbridge through eastern Chad, with the UAE repeatedly identified as the primary supplier. Most recently, Middle East Eye revealed in April 2026 that the RSF receives covert support from an Ethiopian army base in Asosa, with matching military vehicles documented at the Port of Berbera in Somaliland, where the UAE maintains a permanent military base.
On the same day the report was released, a human rights investigator told the UK Parliament that the British government failed to act to prevent atrocities in el-Fasher, citing “political capture” by the UAE and London’s desire to protect its economic and diplomatic ties with Abu Dhabi. Nathaniel Raymond, who delivered more than two dozen private briefings with warnings of impending mass atrocities, told lawmakers that the UK— as the UN penholder for Sudan—was the best positioned global power to prevent mass slaughter, but its warnings were repeatedly ignored. “The British government prioritises economic, security, and diplomatic relationships with the UAE above preventing the intentional starvation, forced displacement, and the genocidal slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians living in el-Fasher and its surrounding communities,” Raymond told Parliament’s International Development Committee.
International efforts to hold perpetrators accountable are already underway, though they have yet to end the violence. The UN Security Council has imposed sanctions on four senior RSF commanders over Darfur atrocities, and the United States formally recognized that RSF actions constitute genocide, sanctioning RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti) in January 2025. The International Criminal Court at The Hague is currently investigating both RSF and SAF commanders for individual criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed since the conflict began.
After three years of war, Sudan faces what the UN and European Union describe as the world’s worst humanitarian and displacement crisis. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced more than 13 million, and pushed over 19.5 million to the brink of famine.