In war-torn Sudan, women are being forced to have sex with soldiers to get food to feed their families, says a report by The Guardian. More than two dozen women who fled the Sudanese city of Omdurman said having sex with soldiers was the only way they could get food or goods that they could sell to raise money to feed their families.
One woman who spoke to the Guardian said there were attacks in factories across the city where food is stored. “Both my parents are very old and sick and I never let my daughter go out looking for food. I went to the soldiers and that was the only way to get food – they were everywhere in the factories area,” said one woman who was forced to have sex with soldiers at a meat processing factory in May last year.
The attacks reportedly began soon after the country’s civil war broke out, in which the country’s army was confronted by the paramilitary Rapid Support Force. Reports of rapes by armed men emerged within days of the conflict starting on April 15 last year.
The war in Sudan has killed hundreds of thousands of people, with some estimates putting the death toll at as high as 150,000. The war has created the worst displacement crisis in the world – more than 11 million people have been left homeless and the country has come to the brink of famine.
Several women have come forward and described RSF fighters systematically sexually abusing them in areas they control. Women told the Guardian that soldiers have demanded sex in exchange for access to empty houses where goods can still be looted and sold in local markets.
One woman said she was allowed to take food, kitchen equipment and perfume from empty houses after having sex with soldiers. She said, “What I have suffered is indescribable, I wouldn’t wish this on an enemy… I only did this because I wanted to feed my children.”
Residents of the town claimed they had seen soldiers bring women to vacant houses, where they were lined up and the soldiers would choose the women who “looked good to them”. One resident said, “A lot of women come and stand in line outside our neighbourhood. I sometimes hear screams, but what can you do? Nothing.”
Another woman told the Guardian that once she refused to have sex with a soldier they tortured her and burned her feet. The 21-year-old woman said she had sex with soldiers in exchange for permission to loot homes for food and goods, but when she refused to do so again the soldiers held her down and burned her feet.
One soldier, who denied ever assaulting a woman himself, said he had seen his colleagues do it. “It’s horrible. The sins that have happened in this city can never be forgiven,” he said.
