Written by Lisa Murimi
Women fleeing Sudan’s al-Fashir city in the Darfur region have reported widespread sexual violence, killings, and the disappearance of their children following the city’s capture by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to a new report by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women).
The city’s fall on October 26, 2025, marked a significant turning point in Sudan’s two-and-a-half-year civil war, cementing the RSF’s control over the Darfur region. Eyewitnesses described brutal scenes of civilians being gunned down in the streets and targeted in drone strikes, as RSF forces tightened their grip on the city.
“There is mounting evidence that rape is being deliberately and systematically used as a weapon of war,” said Anna Mutavati, UN Women’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, speaking from Nairobi via video link to reporters in Geneva.
“Women’s bodies have become a crime scene in Sudan,” she added, highlighting the absence of safe spaces for women and girls seeking refuge or psychosocial care.
UN Women warned that approximately 11 million women and girls in Darfur face acute food insecurity as famine worsens. Many have been forced to forage for wild leaves and berries, facing heightened risks of abduction and gender-based violence while searching for food.
The humanitarian crisis in Darfur has intensified amid the broader conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF, which erupted in April 2023 after months of political deadlock. The U.N. Human Rights Office expressed deep concern that summary executions, ethnic targeting, and sexual violence continue unabated in the region.
According to the United Nations, at least 82,000 people have fled al-Fashir and surrounding areas since late October, while up to 200,000 civilians remain trapped inside the city under siege conditions. Reports of famine in both al-Fashir and Kadugli — another besieged city in southern Sudan — underscore the scale of human suffering and the urgent need for international humanitarian access.
Mutavati called for immediate global action, stressing that the international community must hold perpetrators accountable and ensure protection for women and children caught in the crossfire.
“This is not only a crisis for Sudanese women,” she said, “but a global failure to protect the most vulnerable.”
