Sudan doctors report 32 rapes of girls after RSF takeover of El-Fasher

Trigger warning: This report contains references to sexual violence, including assaults against minors.

A prominent Sudan-based medical organisation has reported 32 rapes of girls during the Rapid Support Forces' (RSF) brutal takeover of El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.

In a report released on Sunday, the Sudan Doctors Network said several girls were raped inside El-Fasher after the RSF seized the city, while others were assaulted as they fled toward the nearby town of Tawila.

The organisation condemned the attacks as "a clear breach of international humanitarian law, and amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity".

It said the latest incidents "reveal the extent of the disorder and systematic abuses facing women and girls in areas controlled by the RSF, amid the absence of protection and a complete lack of accountability".

The group called for the RSF to be held responsible for the atrocities and urged an immediate, independent international investigation, as well as protection for survivors and witnesses and unrestricted access for medical, humanitarian and legal teams.

The findings follow warnings issued on Friday by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which said hundreds of people had been subjected to torture and sexual violence since the RSF’s capture of El-Fasher.

Michel Lacharite, MSF's head of emergency operations, said: "We received more than 500 victims of torture in the past months, and only for the month of September there’s an account of more than 200 cases of sexual violence."

He added that "immediately after the takeover of El-Fasher during the weekend of the 26th and 27th of October, a few thousand people fled to Tawila. Today, fewer than ten thousand have arrived".

MSF said those who escaped reported indiscriminate and ethnically targeted killings. An unknown number of people are also believed to be detained in the village of Qarni as they attempted to flee.

"We know that some people are detained," Lacharite said. "We know they are asked for money. Several accounts point in this direction. To know exactly how many people are detained - hundreds or thousands - is very difficult to assess."

The conflict between Sudan's army and the RSF, which erupted in April 2023, has killed at least 40,000 people and displaced 12 million, according to the World Health Organization.

The RSF seized control of El-Fasher last month and has since been accused by local and international groups of carrying out massacres, raising fears the takeover could deepen Sudan’s de facto partition.

The RSF now controls all five Darfur states, while the army holds most of the country’s remaining 13 states, including Khartoum.

In response to the reports of abuses, the UN Human Rights Council has ordered an investigation into violations in El-Fasher, directing the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan to urgently examine events in the North Darfur capital.