This article discusses sexual violence.
Many survivors who speak with MSF teams in Darfur and across the border in Chad share horrifying stories of brutal violence and rape. Most are women and girls, but men and boys are also at risk. The true scale of this crisis remains difficult to quantify because services for survivors are limited, and the extent of the suffering is beyond comprehension.
55-year-old woman interviewed in Wadi Fira Province, eastern Chad
“They burned everything and killed some of us”
The war started suddenly. The first attack happened in June. They attacked our villages several times after that. Sometimes they came back after 15 days, sometimes after one month. On October 2 they burned everything and killed some of us, so we were afraid to go back. They took everything: our animals, furniture, food. We ran away to Chad. We stayed seven days without food after the attack.
The day they attacked I saw them. I know some of them. They are “white people,” Arabs. Some of them were RSF [Rapid Support Forces]. RSF have cars. The Arab clans just have camels, horses, and scooters. One scooter sometimes carries two or three people.
Sexual violence is so widespread that many think it is inevitable
“Women and girls do not feel safe anywhere,” said Claire San Filippo, MSF emergency coordinator for Sudan. “They are attacked in their own homes, when fleeing violence, getting food, collecting firewood, working in the fields. They tell us they feel trapped. These attacks are heinous and cruel, often involving multiple perpetrators. This must stop."
"Sexual violence is not a natural or inevitable consequence of war," San Filippo added. "It can constitute a war crime, a form of torture and a crime against humanity. The warring parties must hold their fighters accountable and protect people from this sickening violence. Services for survivors must immediately be scaled up, so survivors have access to the medical treatment and psychological care they desperately need."
MSF provides care to survivors of sexual violence in multiple areas of Darfur and across the border in eastern Chad. Accounts from survivors show that many are raped and beaten during attacks and along the road, and some are still not safe in the places where people seek refuge. Others are raped while working in fields.
Sexual violence has become so widespread in Darfur that many people chillingly speak about it as unavoidable. “Some people came at night to rape the women and take everything, including animals,” a 27-year-old woman told MSF’s team in West Darfur, adding “I heard some women being raped at night. The men were hiding in toilets or in some rooms they could close, like my husband and brothers, otherwise they would get killed. The women didn’t hide because it was just beating and rape for us, but the men would get killed.”
It is not only during attacks on villages and towns or during the journey to safety that people have been raped and beaten. Limited humanitarian assistance is forcing people to take risks to survive: People are walking long distances to meet their basic needs and taking work in dangerous places. Others decide against taking the risk but are then cut off from their sources of income, reducing further their access to water, food, and health care. This is no guarantee of safety, as people are also attacked in their home.
37-year-old woman interviewed in eastern Chad
“I cannot sleep; I see dead people in front of my eyes”
I left El Fasher in May 2024 because of the bombing. Inside El Fasher during the bombing there was no way to get food. Sometimes when it was quiet, the men went outside looking for something to eat. My neighbor died because of a bomb. My cousin also died from bombing when her house got destroyed.
As the situation was getting worse, we left for Zamzam [a camp of around half a million internally displaced people at the time]. We left Zamzam as well because of the bombing. Then we left Tawila because we heard that in Chad there is more help and food from organizations. On the road from Tawila to Kabkabiya, we traveled in a convoy of 55 cars. There were cars with armed men that escorted us.
Sudanese refugees in Chad recount sexual violence
Eastern Chad currently hosts over 800,000 Sudanese refugees, and MSF teams provide care to sexual violence survivors alongside other medical programs. In Adré, almost half of the 44 survivors treated by MSF since January 2025 were children. In Wadi Fira Province, 94 survivors were treated from January to March 2025, 81 of whom were under the age of 18.
Many survivors report being raped by more than one person. In Metché in eastern Chad, 11 out of 24 survivors treated between January and March 2025 were attacked by multiple assailants. The experiences patients share in various locations bear this out.
Caring for victims of sexual and gender-based violence in South Darfur
Of the 659 survivors of sexual violence in South Darfur treated by MSF between January 2024 and March 2025:
- 86% reported that they were raped.
- 94% of survivors were women and girls.
- 56% said they were assaulted by a non-civilian (a member of military, police, or other security forces, or non-state armed groups).
- 55% reported additional physical violence during the assault.
- 34% faced sexual violence while working in, or traveling to, the fields.
- 31% were younger than 18, and 7% were younger than 10 years old.
Because survivors face many difficulties in accessing care, the numbers of patients treated by MSF cannot be taken as a full representation of the scale of sexual violence.
“When we arrived in Kulbus, we saw a group of three women with some RSF [Rapid Support Forces] men guarding them," one 17-year-old rape survivor told MSF. "The RSF also ordered us to stay with them. They told us, ‘You are the wives of the Sudanese army or their girls.’ [...] Then they beat us and they raped us right there on the road, in public. There were nine RSF men. Seven of them raped me. I wanted to lose my memory after that."
In some cases, the attackers directly accused the survivors of supporting the other side. One woman shared her story: “I have a certificate for first aid nursing. [When they stopped us], the RSF asked me to give them my bag. When they saw the certificate inside, they told me, ‘You want to heal the Sudanese army, you want to cure the enemy!’ Then they burned my certificate, and they took me away to rape me. They told everyone else to stay on the floor. I was with some other women, including my sister. They only raped me, because of my certificate.”
27-year-old woman interviewed in eastern Chad
“When they see it’s a boy, they kill them”
The war started in our village with sounds of gunshots. Then we heard the sound of a big bomb. We tried to run away. The bomb fell into the grass and set it on fire. Some people were burnt on their feet because of the fire. Later they were transferred to [a] clinic, about 10 kilometers away from our village. We also sent one girl and one woman who were raped there. One was 13 years old and one was 27. She had three children.
I also heard later about a group of three girls who went to work together and a group of Janjaweed caught them on the road. One had her period, so they beat her until she needed to go to a hospital.
MSF expands access to care for survivors
Where services exist, survivors need clear and accessible referral pathways to get the help they need. In late 2024, MSF added a community-based component to its care for survivors of sexual violence in South Darfur, the state with the greatest number of displaced people in Sudan. Midwives and community health care workers were trained and equipped to provide emergency contraceptives and psychological first aid to survivors. They also supported survivors’ referral to MSF-supported primary health care clinics and secondary hospitals for comprehensive care. Since the addition of this community-based model, MSF has seen a steep increase in women and adolescents seeking care.
32-year-old man interviewed in Murnei, West Darfur, Sudan
“There was a little girl of 13 years old who was raped by three men”
I lost my dear friends during the war, and they burned all our houses. It started in July 2023. That day, I lost my brother. He ran away with money when the fighting started. Some Janjaweed asked him to stop and to give him the money. He threw the money away and started running. Some of them shot him and he died.
When I was on the road fleeing Murnei, I saw people being beaten in front of me. I found one lady who had delivered one day before the war and her baby had died at birth. I saw her on the road, and she was too weak to walk, so I held that lady in my arms. I managed to cross and enter Sharg Anil. Until now that lady is still not well. She accessed treatment – we took her to a clinic. But she is thinking about her baby’s death.
MSF teams continue to see new survivors of sexual violence. In Tawila North Darfur,an MSF team is working in a hospital that received 48 survivors of sexual violence between January and the beginning of May, most of whom arrived after fleeing fighting in Zamzam camp in April.
17-year-old girl interviewed in eastern Chad
“Then they beat us and they raped us right there on the road”
One day when we were at home, we suddenly started to see people with their children fleeing in the street. My sister went to the market and when she came back she said, “The RSF are attacking, everyone is running away.” After that we started hearing the sound of bombing and guns.
We tried to run away. I was with a group of around 30 people. My family fled in different directions, and we found each other later on the road.
Just outside of Kulbus, we saw the SAF going in the opposite direction, toward the town. The RSF started to shoot at them. Some of us were shot, some were killed. I saw a boy from the village being shot and he died on the road. Another 16-year-old boy was shot in both of his legs.
Civilians must be protected
“Access to services for survivors of sexual violence is lacking and, like most humanitarian and health care services in Sudan, must urgently be scaled up,” said Ruth Kauffman, MSF emergency medical manager. “People—mostly women and girls—who suffer sexual violence urgently need medical care, including psychological support, and protection services. Care must be tailored from the outset to mitigate against the many overwhelming barriers survivors face when seeking medical care in the aftermath of sexual violence.”
It is imperative to halt brutal attacks and rapes. Warring parties must ensure that civilians are protected, respecting their obligations under International Humanitarian Law to protect civilians, and medical and humanitarian services for survivors of sexual violence must be urgently scaled up in Darfur and eastern Chad.
