Nairobi, May 28, (dpa/GNA) – Women and girls in Sudan’s Darfur region are exposed to the near-constant threat of sexual violence, Doctors without Borders (MSF) warned on Wednesday.

“Women and girls do not feel safe anywhere. They are attacked in their own homes, when fleeing violence, getting food, collecting firewood, working in the fields. They tell us they feel trapped,” MSF emergency coordinator Claire San Filippo said.

Sexual violence has become so widespread in Darfur that many people chillingly speak about it as unavoidable, she added.

“Women and girls do not feel safe anywhere,” Filippo said. The attacks often involved multiple perpetrators, she added.

Government forces under the command of Sudan’s de facto ruler Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan have been battling the rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023. According to UN figures, 12.4 million people have been internally displaced or forced to flee abroad due to the ongoing civil war.

The UN and human rights organizations have repeatedly accused the RSF of massive sexual violence. Precise information on the number of cases is lacking as the victims tend to remain silent for reason of shame.

MSF said it had provided care to 659 survivors of sexual violence in South Darfur between January 2024 and March 2025.

“They beat us, and they raped us right there on the road, in public,” a 17-year-old girl told the organization. She said that seven RSF fighters had raped her.

A 25-year-old woman reported that her 13-year-old niece had died as the result of gang rape.

Other eyewitnesses reported that scarcely a day went by without rape when women left refugee camps to walk to a market. Women working the fields were venturing out only in groups, although this did not provide protection, they said.

GNA

PDC