Sexual violence is forcing girls to flee Sudan, THE WORLD CANNOT LOOK AWAY

I was in Khartoum when the conflict started,” the young woman began, her voice steady despite the horror she was describing. Armed men stormed her home, demanding groundnuts. When her mother refused to open the door, they shot her instantly. As she screamed, three soldiers seized her and dragged her behind a building, where ten men raped her in succession. With her mother dead and neighbours fleeing, no one came to help. Two days later, after a hurried burial, she joined others moving toward the South Sudan border.

We met her near the Aweil crossing in July 2024, in suffocating heat and thick mud that clung to the feet of hundreds fleeing the war. Her story, though devastating, was far from unique. Nearly 700 returnees and forced migrants—from young girls to elderly women, from fathers to teenage boys—told us similarly harrowing accounts of being terrorised by soldiers and militias on both sides of the Sudanese conflict.

Sudan’s war, which erupted in April 2023, has torn the country apart. More than 150,000 people have been killed, and countless others displaced by fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The RSF, descended from the Janjaweed militia accused of genocide in Darfur two decades ago, has been implicated in massacres, ethnic cleansing, and widespread sexual violence. As the conflict deepens, one truth becomes increasingly undeniable: sexual and gender-based violence is not just happening in Sudan—it is driving mass displacement across the border into South Sudan.

More than half of the people we interviewed said sexual violence was the primary reason they fled. For adolescent girls aged 13 to 17, that figure rose sharply.

A REGION ALREADY ON THE EDGE

To understand the danger confronting these returnees, one must consider the fragility of South Sudan itself. Since gaining independence in 2011, the world’s newest nation has been chronically unstable. A political split in 2013 spiralled into a brutal civil war fought largely along ethnic lines. Nearly 400,000 people died, 2.3 million fled the country, and two million more were displaced internally. The conflict shattered South Sudan’s state-building efforts.

Today, the country remains perilously unstable. In late 2024, the UN warned that South Sudan was on the brink of returning to full-scale war after escalating tensions between President Salva Kiir and First Vice-President Riek Machar. Clashes among armed groups have spread fear across the country. For those fleeing Sudan’s violence—especially women and girls—South Sudan offers safety in theory, but insecurity is increasing.

The humanitarian crisis is overwhelming. More than 1.2 million refugees and returnees have crossed from Sudan since 2023, putting enormous pressure on an already strained system. Over 9.3 million people— more than 70 per cent of the population—now require assistance. Acute food insecurity affects 7.8 million, and more than 2.3 million children face malnutrition. Even before this influx, South Sudan had some of the highest rates of sexual and gender-based violence in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In this context of conflict, displacement, and hunger, the border between Sudan and South Sudan has become a corridor of extreme vulnerability—particularly for adolescent girls.

WHAT THEY TOLD US EXPOSED A TERRIFYING PATTERN

Girls and young women are being explicitly targeted. Armed groups raid homes, storm camps, and stop travellers at roadside checkpoints. When men with guns demand girls, parents have almost no way to protect them—no safe routes, no safe transport, no authorities to call. Deepening poverty forces families onto dangerous roads, increasing exposure.

One woman recounted: “The rebel car came towards us. They took the girls by force. They raped us in the open while the men watched. What hurts the most is knowing we are not the only ones.”

Another mother described her 12-year-old daughter’s death: “She was raped by a group of soldiers and died instantly. I must speak of it so the world knows what is happening.” Soldiers then raped four other girls in front of her.

Our data showed that adolescent girls were significantly more likely than older women to cite sexual violence as the reason they fled—not something that merely occurred during the journey. For them, rape was the trigger for migration.

In some cases, older women expressed a tragic familiarity with sexual violence, shaped by previous wars in the region. Younger girls, however, were specifically targeted for abduction, forced marriage, and prolonged assault. One survivor recounted that her 15-year-old sister resisted soldiers who had stopped their vehicle. “They beat her badly and raped her one after another. Then they killed her. We were forced to leave her body on the road.”

Another woman, barely out of her teens, described being abducted with seven others: “I was raped repeatedly for two days by four men. I miscarried my three-month pregnancy. I also contracted syphilis.”

These stories are part of a larger, devastating truth: 53 per cent of all participants said sexual violence was their main reason for fleeing Sudan. It is not a side effect of war—it is a central weapon driving mass migration.

SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION