Khartoum / PNN /

 The Sudanese Doctors Network said on Sunday that it had documented 32 cases of rape against girls in the city of El Fasher and its surrounding areas in western Sudan, since the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) overran the region on October 26.

The independent network said in a statement: “The Sudanese Doctors Network team, based on reliable medical and field information, has documented 32 cases of rape of girls from the city of El Fasher who arrived in the Tawila area (west).”

It added that some of the rape cases occurred inside El Fasher following the RSF’s incursion into the city, while others took place during the victims’ flight to Tawila.

The network condemned the rapes in El Fasher, describing them as “a blatant violation of international humanitarian law that amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity, revealing the extent of the lawlessness and systematic abuses that women and girls are subjected to in areas under RSF control, amid the absence of any protection and complete lack of accountability.”

The Sudanese Doctors Network held the RSF “fully responsible for these crimes,” and called for an urgent and independent international investigation, as well as the immediate protection of survivors and witnesses.

It also urged that “medical and humanitarian organizations be allowed access to the area to provide care, treatment, and psychological and legal support to the survivors without restrictions or threats.”

The UN Human Rights Council strongly condemned the escalating violence in El Fasher and its surroundings following the RSF takeover, calling for an urgent investigation into the violations committed there.

UN Women also denounced, on Tuesday, the “crimes of the Rapid Support Forces” in Sudan, affirming that rape “is being used deliberately and systematically.”

On October 26, the RSF seized control of El Fasher and committed massacres against civilians, according to local and international organizations, amid warnings of entrenching a geographic partition of the country.

RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo “Hemedti” acknowledged on the 29th of the same month that “violations” had occurred by his forces in El Fasher, claiming that investigative committees had been formed.

Sudan’s humanitarian crisis continues to worsen due to intensifying clashes across multiple fronts in a brutal war between the army and the RSF since April 2023, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced around 13 million people.

Of the country’s 18 states, the RSF currently controls all five states of the Darfur region in the west, except for some northern parts of North Darfur State that remain under army control.