Armed men have raped and sexually assaulted children as young as one during Sudan’s civil war, according to UNICEF:
So traumatized are the survivors that some say they have attempted to end their lives.
Mass sexual violence has been widely documented as a weapon of war in the country’s nearly two-year conflict.
But Unicef’s report is the first detailed account about the impact of rape on young children in Sudan.
A third of the victims were boys, who typically face “unique challenges” in reporting such crimes and seeking the help they need.
Unicef says that, although 221 rape cases against children have been officially reported since the start of 2024, the true number is likely to be much higher….[At least] 16 of the victims were under the age of five years, including four infants.
Unicef does not say who is responsible, but other UN investigations have blamed the majority of rapes on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), saying RSF fighters had a pattern of using sexual violence to terrorise civilians and suppress opposition to their advances….
“Children as young as one being raped by armed men should shock anyone to their core and compel immediate action,” Unicef executive director Catherine Russell said. “Millions of children in Sudan are at risk of rape and other forms of sexual violence, which is being used as a tactic of war. This is an abhorrent violation of international law and could constitute a war crime. It must stop.”
“Victims in the RSF’s stronghold of Darfur were often targeted because they were black African rather than Arab, apparently with the aim of driving them out of Sudan,” human rights experts say.
Civil wars exist in both Sudan and neighboring South Sudan. Over 400,000 people have died in a 3-year-old civil war in Sudan, one of Africa’s largest countries. 636,000 people fled from Sudan into neighboring South Sudan, which is even more backward than Sudan. Meanwhile, an almost identical number of people have fled from South Sudan into Sudan
