Amnesty: Sudan paramilitaries used women as sex slaves

SUDAN'S paramilitary forces subjected women to sexual slavery and gang raped women and girls as part of their war strategy, rights group Amnesty International said in a report yesterday.

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The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been battling the army since April 15 2023, and the war has created what the UN describes as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

While the military reclaimed the capital Khartoum in March, the country remains essentially divided in two.

"The RSF have carried out widespread sexual violence across towns and villages in Sudan to humiliate, assert control, and displace communities," the report said.

Deprose Muchena, the group's senior director for regional human rights impact, said the RSF's attacks on civilians "are shameful and cowardly, and any countries supporting the RSF, including by supplying them with weapons, shares in their shame." The 30-page report, titled They Raped All of Us, details the harrowing testimonies of around 30 victims, some of them girls, and their relatives.