Sudan’s Doctors Network said on Sunday that it had documented 32 confirmed cases of rape in one week involving girls and young women fleeing the city of El Fasher in North Darfur, as heavy fighting spreads in other parts of the country.
In a statement, the network said its medical and field teams gathered what it described as credible information showing that some assaults occurred inside El Fasher after Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters entered the city, while others took place as victims escaped west toward the town of Tawila.
The group condemned what it called systematic sexual violence by RSF members against women in El Fasher and those fleeing the conflict. It said the abuses constitute “grave violations of international humanitarian law” that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The network held the RSF fully responsible and called for an urgent, independent international investigation, protection measures for survivors and witnesses, and unrestricted access to medical, psychological and legal support.
Clashes in West Kordofan
Local sources told Al Jazeera Mubasher that the town of Babanusa in West Kordofan witnessed heavy clashes on Sunday between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF around the army’s 22nd Division headquarters.
The sources said RSF units had positioned themselves in the Al-Salam and Al-Jame’a neighbourhoods in central Babanusa. Both sides exchanged artillery fire, and residents reported a series of explosions and rising smoke near the army compound.
On October 26, the RSF said it had seized the army’s Sixth Infantry Division base in El Fasher after intense fighting and claimed full control of the Darfur region, which accounts for roughly one-third of Sudan’s territory.
More than 12 million people have been displaced and tens of thousands killed since war erupted in April 2023 between the army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), in what UN agencies describe as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
African Leaders Push for RSF Terror Designation
In a related development, Sudan’s acting foreign ministry undersecretary, Moawia Osman, said the final communiqué of the Great Lakes Region summit held in Kinshasa recommended designating the RSF as a “terrorist organisation.”
He said the summit urged its secretariat to mobilise support within the UN Security Council and the African Union to condemn what it called atrocities committed by the RSF against civilians and stressed the need to hold the group accountable.
