The Mt Kenya Times 
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The United Nations has verified hundreds of cases of rape used as a deliberate weapon of war — and warns the true scale is far worse.
By Norman Mwale
Sudan’s war has turned women’s bodies into battlefields. That is not a metaphor. It is the finding of a new United Nations report that verified 546 incidents of sexual violence across 16 of Sudan’s 18 states between the start of the conflict and mid-April 2026, affecting at least 838 victims — all but 15 of them women and girls.
UN officials are unambiguous: these numbers are, in their own words, “the tip of the iceberg.” Shame, fear, and the near-total collapse of health services are keeping the vast majority of survivors silent.
“This is a war crime and, if committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack, a crime against humanity,” said Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who visited Sudan in January and returned warning that rape was being deployed as a deliberate instrument of terror.
The UN human rights office found that sexual violence has spread alongside front lines and displacement routes, used consistently to humiliate and fracture communities. In Darfur, investigators found reasonable grounds to believe some acts may constitute crimes against humanity. ICC Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan told the Security Council that “this criminality is being repeated in town after town” and would continue “until this conflict, and the sense of impunity that fuels it, are stopped.”
Survivors have described gang rape, abductions, and sexual assault during body searches, with women and girls from non-Arab communities at particular risk.
UN Women reports demand for survivor support has surged 288 per cent since the war began in April 2023. Regional Director Anna Mutavati said women and girls are being raped and killed in their homes and as they flee for food, water, and medical care. UNICEF spokesperson James Elder described meeting medical staff with direct contact with hundreds of victims — some as young as eight — many held captive for weeks.
The war between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 14 million people. More than 4.3 million women and girls are internally displaced, and 17.1 million people require humanitarian assistance in 2026.
UN officials are urging the Security Council to strengthen accountability, protect civilians, and scale up funding for frontline responders.
Without justice, the wounds of this war will fracture Sudan for generations.
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