NewStats: 3,262,165 , 8,176,293 topics. Date: Sunday, 01 June 2025 at 05:49 AM 5l2s1u

Armed men are raping and sexually assaulting children as young as one during Sudan's civil war, says the UN children's agency, Unicef.

So traumatised 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 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.

Sudan is a socially conservative country where huge societal stigma stops survivors and their families from speaking out about rape, as does the fear of retribution from armed groups.

The Unicef report provides an appalling window into the abuse of children in the country's civil war.

Perhaps its most shocking revelation is that 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 Forces (RSF), saying RSF fighters had a pattern of using sexual violence to terrorise civilians and suppress opposition to their advances.

The RSF, which is fighting this war against its former allies, the Sudanese Armed Forces, has denied any wrongdoing.

"Children as young as one being raped by armed men should shock anyone to their core and compel immediate action," said Unicef executive director Catherine Russell.

"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."

According to evidence presented by international human rights groups, 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.

The UN humanitarian response for Sudan is already underfunded. Recent cuts in US aid are expected to reduce programmes to help the victims even further.

Harrowing details in Unicef's report underscore the dire situation.

"After nine at night, someone opens the door, carrying a whip, selects one of the girls, and takes her to another room. I could hear the little girl crying and screaming. They were raping her," recalls Omnia (not her real name), an adult female survivor who was held by armed men in a room with other women and girls.

"Every time they raped her, this girl would come back covered in blood. She is still just a young child. They only release these girls at dawn, and they return almost unconscious. Each of them cries and speaks incoherently. During the 19 days I spent there, I reached a point where I wanted to end my life."

Unicef says the attacks included armed men storming homes and demanding that the girls be surrendered, raping some of them in front of their loved ones.

Victims were sometimes left with serious injuries and unwanted pregnancies.

In addition to the 221 rapes reported by Unicief were an additional 77 cases of sexual assault against children - mostly attempted rape.

As a fractured nation at war, Sudan is one of the most challenging places on earth to access services and frontline workers.

"The sheer scale of sexual violence we have documented in Sudan is staggering," said Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the UN's fact-finding mission when its previous report was published in October.

The vast number of people displaced by the war has made women and children more vulnerable to attack – three out of four school-age girls are out of school, the UN says.

Trump government cuts end vital help

The devastating outcome of these crimes is aggravated by the fact that victims have few places to turn to for medical help, because many medical facilities have been destroyed, looted or occupied by the warring parties.

Recent US aid cuts may be endangering even the limited services available to protect children.

Unicef has been providing safe spaces for children through a network of local activists who have set up what are known as Emergency Response Rooms to deal with the crises in their communities.

The activists relied quite heavily on US aid, and most have been forced to shut down, according to a Sudanese coordinating committee that monitors them.

More broadly, the UN organization dedicated to protecting women's rights says local organisations led by women are vital in delivering to survivors of sexual violence. But they receive less than 2% of the total funding of the UN's Sudan Humanitarian Fund.

The BBC learned that at least one of these local groups, known as "She Leads", was forced to close when US funding was stopped.

It was not a big expense, measured in the tens of thousands of dollars, but enabled case workers to reach around 35 survivors a month, said Sulaima Elkhalifa, a Sudanese human rights defender who runs a government unit on combatting violence against woman and helped organize the private initiative.

Those who have been raped by armed men "don't have the luxury of being depressed," she told the BBC.

The demands of war – finding food, needing to flee – leave no space to deal with trauma, she added.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgpdxk853jo?

This is sad

Vv

What! How is that even possible?
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Evil that men do.

Africa my continent. Quite sad and disappointing watching brother turn against brother

Anywhere Islam is....

Trump, the "peacemaker", what would be his verdict?

How come these people continue to wage rather meaningless wars? Because they have guns. Who extract materials for, produce and sell them these guns? We need to deal with gun problems. And, subsequently, should people war like humans always had done, it wouldn't be as catastrophic as this. There's gun problem.

U will not see any protest in Europe or anywhere since Israel is not involved.

even UN just dey do eye service

Most times, believe these white people at your own peril...

Extremely gory and sad. When you look at the affairs of the world, what the larger % people go through, you almost beg the question why we are here.

Hard to believe
Y’all know
What 1year old baby is atall

Nah I wouldn’t accept this crap

Casualty of war

tolexy007:
U will not see any protest in Europe or anywhere since Israel is not involved.

even UN just dey do eye service

You could as well protest for your fellow Africans, like the Arabs protest for their fellow Arabs.

PlayerMeji:
Anywhere Islam is....

Peace gradually evaporates

Na devil go punish all of una wey still dey APC

God have mercy

tolexy007:
U will not see any protest in Europe or anywhere since Israel is not involved.

even UN just dey do eye service

Africa is on her own..

morning afternoon night is always gaza and Israel on the news, but nobody send ethiopia and sudan and somalia.

Africa is on her own.

jasontrigga:
Hard to believe
Y’all know
What 1year old baby is atall

Nah I wouldn’t accept this crap

Hard to Believe BUT VERY POSSIBLE

Imagine, if we talk now they'll call us names. That janja...weed...

ZombieDredd:

Africa is on her own..

morning afternoon night is always gaza and Israel on the news, but nobody send ethiopia and sudan and somalia.

Africa is on her own.

Them dey protest Arab war?!.

tolexy007:
U will not see any protest in Europe or anywhere since Israel is not involved.

even UN just dey do eye service

Brother na from dis Sudanese war i believe say Arabs especially the Muslim world na hypocrites, even the UN to is not left out. If only they would channel daht energy the use in criticising israel and pampering Hamas there would have been peace in sudan. Antonio Guterres is the worst UN Sec. Gen ever

OneOnland:

You could as well protest for your fellow Africans, like the Arabs protest for their fellow Arabs.

Bro sudan is an Arab country and we are yet to see any protect from their fellow Arabs

Islam of peace

UN are scammers, what have they done right without bais motives. Whenever they want to spoil the mind of the world against a country, they accuse the country of killing or raping children in a bid to generate public hatred against their target country.

Fvck UN
FVCK TINUBU
FVCK FG
FVCK all of them...let them kiss my clean ass....The world is gone. find your happiness and peace.

PlayerMeji:
Anywhere Islam is....

destruction and despair follows

The so called Arabs in Sudan are darker in skin color than an average Nigerian, but they foolishly call themselves Arabs. So this is a case of dumb stupid brainwashed people trying to be what they are not. They are treated like crap anyway when they go to the real Arab countries, same thing with the Somalians dumb idiots claiming Arabs thinking it makes them better. This conflict shows how totally useless the African union is, because Egypt and UAE are fuelling this conflict with weapons.