Press Release
Who will Defend the Women of Sudan and Darfur?
(Translated)

Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) has warned that women and girls in Sudan's Darfur region are at almost constant risk of sexual violence. The true scale of this crisis remains difficult to determine, as services are still limited and people face obstacles in seeking treatment or speaking out about their ordeal. However, all the survivors who spoke with MSF teams in Darfur and across the border in Chad recounted horrific stories of brutal violence and rape. While men and boys are also at risk, the extent of suffering defies description.

The conflict that began in April 2023 between the regular Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands, displaced 13 million people, and left the country's already fragile infrastructure in ruins. The RSF has been accused since the beginning of the war of systematic sexual violence across the country, which has become so widespread in Darfur that it has reached a terrifying level, making many people view it as an inevitable fate. Girls and women feel unsafe everywhere, they are attacked in their homes, while fleeing violence, while collecting food, gathering firewood, or working in the fields.

MSF reported that between January 2024 and March 2025, it treated 659 survivors of violence in South Darfur, 94% of whom were women and girls. More than half were assaulted by armed groups, about one-third were minors, and some victims were as young as five years old.

According to the emergency medical director at MSF, there is a severe lack of medical care for survivors of sexual violence, including psychological support and protection services, similar to most humanitarian and healthcare services in Sudan. It is crucial that survivors receive care after the assault, as sexual violence is a medical emergency, and its immediate and long-term physical and psychological consequences can be life-threatening. Yet survivors struggle to access medical care and protection due to the shortage of services and the difficulty of reaching them. Shame, fear of stigma, or fear of retaliation also lead many to hesitate to speak about the assault.

The situation is similar in other places where MSF provides care to survivors, such as eastern Chad, which currently hosts over 800,000 Sudanese refugees. In Adré, MSF treated 44 survivors since January 2025, nearly half of whom were children. In the Wadi Fira region, 94 survivors received treatment, 81 of whom were under 18 years old. The testimonies of patients and caregivers in both eastern Chad and Darfur confirm this grim reality.

To the Army Officers and Soldiers: You continue this abhorrent fighting, the high cost of which is paid by civilians, women and children, serving the interests of America and Europe who covet sovereignty over Sudan and seek control over its wealth and the fate of its people, even if it leads to its partition into spheres of influence you think will belong to you. So turn back from your delusion and misguidance so that you may be shown mercy.

To our People in Sudan: This is just a drop in the ocean of suffering you have endured since the outbreak of the bloody conflict, which has entered a dark tunnel of violence, displacement, and economic and social collapse, of which you are living the horrific consequences.

This conflict is driven by the colonial powers coveting your country—so why not act to stop it, uproot the conspirators, and find a righteous Muslim ruler and a courageous leader who does not fear falsehood, does not flatter it, and does not covet power or position, but seeks instead to implement the law of Allah and His divine system. This is what unites people and the Ummah:

[وَإِنَّ هَذِهِ أُمَّتُكُمْ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً وَأَنَا رَبُّكُمْ فَاتَّقُونِ]

“And indeed this, your religion, is one religion, and I am your Lord, so fear Me.” [Surat Al-Mu'minun:51]

This will only come through serious work to establish the second Khilafah Rashidah (rightly-guided Caliphate) on the method of the Prophethood, which will correct what is crooked, return rights to their owners, and restore wealth to its people, so that Sudan may once again become the breadbasket of the Muslims and the stronghold of the Islamic State.

Women’s Section
in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir