The African Center for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) has called for urgent justice for seven female university students who were kidnapped and subjected to sexual slavery during weeks of fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur State.
The Center also expressed deep concern about the escalation of sexual violence as a result of the ongoing armed conflict in Sudan.
A lawyer, Musaed Mohammed Ali, the ACJPS Executive Director, said in a statement to Radio Tamazuj over the weekend that El Geneina is one of the cities in western Sudan that has witnessed a rise in gender-based violence, especially widespread rape.
“These girls were even subjected to sexual slavery. According to the center’s documentation between 25 May and 9 June, these violations have been on the increase since the outbreak of battles between the army and the RSF in mid-April,” he stated. “El Geneina in particular faced the most violent violations at all levels, in addition to hundreds of cases of rape against women and minors by the army, RSF, people wearing RSF uniforms, and armed Arab militias.”
According to Ali, the violations were carried out on an ethnic or identity basis, and the evidence is that most of the victims are from the Masalit tribe and other non-Arab tribes.
“The ACJPS documented the incident of the kidnapping of seven university girls by the Sudanese coalition forces and they were sexually abused for 14 days,” Ali explained. “They were subjected to continuous sexual violations, including rape, all while they were in detention, in addition to doing other household chores.”
For her part, Nahid Ibrahim, a student at the Faculty of Nursing at the University of El Geneina, confirmed that unbearable atrocities occurred against women.
She said students in girls’ boarding schools live in trepidation and under very difficult circumstances.
“Many students are still missing to date but a few have contacted their families,” she said.
The ACJPS director renewed their condemnation of the arbitrary detention and sexual violence against the seven female university students and all civilians in Sudan.
He called on the Sudanese authorities to condemn and stop conflict-related sexual violence and a comprehensive and impartial investigation into all reports related to sexual violence committed by all the parties in the conflict so that perpetrators are held accountable.
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