Sudan’s Human Rights Crisis: Civilians Caught in Widespread Violence

Written by: Diego Korporaal

Trigger warning: This article contains detailed descriptions of sexual violence.

This is the private work of Diego Korporaal, member of the Amnesty Student Group Utrecht (AISU), and does not represent an official Amnesty International analysis.

Since April 2023 Sudan is facing one of the gravest human rights crises in modern history, with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) engaging in armed conflict for power over the country. And above all, the fight for Sudan’s natural resources, including a large gold reserve of approximately 533 tons.

The start

The beginning of the armed conflict traces back to president Omar al-Bashir, who came to rule Sudan from 1989 until 2019 after a coup. The Sudanese people protested his rule and called for an end to it. This led to the national army mounting a military coup to get rid of president al-Bashir and set up a joint military-civilian government. The new government was then also overthrown by another coup in October 2021, staged by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the armed forces and now the country’s president, and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. After the new reigns placed the country under full military leadership and imposed a state of emergency, Sudanese protesters went to the streets. They demanded a civilian ruled Sudan. Security forces responded with lethal force, which lead to 117 people being killed  between October 2021 and August 2022. Tension between al-Burhan and Dagalo rose with them not agreeing on the direction that Sudan was heading and the fear of losing power to the other. After days of tension as RSF soldiers were redeployed around the country, the armed conflict between the SAF and the RSF started on the fifteenth of April 2023 (Amnesty International, 2023).

The resulting violence

Because of the conflict in Sudan many people but mainly  women and girls are subjected to sexual violence, civilian properties are being looted and destroyed, millions of people have been displaced and live in dire conditions, and aid delivery is being restricted (Amnesty International, n.d.). Both the SAF and the RSF have subjected women and girls to sexual violence (Amnesty International, 2025a). The United Nations (UN) and many other (Sudanese) human rights organisations have also reported widespread sexual and gender-based violence in Sudan since the start of the conflict, including rape, gang rape, sexual slavery, and enforced prostitution among other violations (Human Rights Council, 2024) (African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies, 2025).  Methods of sexual violence are being used to humiliate, punish, control, inflict fear, and displace women and their communities. Women were even subjected to this violence in public, in front of their children, or in front of other family members (Amnesty International, 2025a).

Amnesty International interviewed many survivors including Batul, a Sudanese nurse. She said she was abducted by the RSF in front of her six children, including a sick daughter who has a heart disease, because they knew she was a medical worker. The RSF wanted her to tend to a critically injured soldier in the Al-Amal Hospital. On the second day of her abduction eight RSF soldiers came into the room in which she was detained. They beat her and then raped her one after the other, because of this her unhealed C-section wound opened. She started bleeding and fell unconscious. They kept beating and harassing her every day and later released her in a terrible condition after 45 days. She also said she was not the only medical worker forced to treat RSF soldiers. In the hospital she saw Dr. Tehani, who was later shot and killed by the RSF for resisting rape (Amnesty International, 2025a). This is just one example of the various experiences many people in Sudan face. Regardless of the price women in Sudan pay, they remain largely absent from diplomatic efforts to stop the conflict. Neither the Jeddah negotiations in 2023 nor the Geneva discussions in 2024 included women representatives (D’Addario, 2025). Yet when women lead, the chances of peace lasting  increases significantly. The probability of a peace agreement lasting 15 years increases by 35 per cent (UN Women, 2025).

Despite  violence targeted specifically against women, non-Arab ethnic groups have a long-standing history in being discriminated against in Sudan. The reinforcement of the conflict in 2023, instigated a new wave of ethnically motivated violence against Masalit people and other non-Arab communities (Amnesty International, 2026). The RSF has continuously attacked non-Arab communities, since 2013. An example of the targeted attacks against non-Arab people is the RSF-led campaigns in Darfur of 2014 until 2015: they burned entire villages, committed mass killings, and destroyed water sources in predominantly non-Arab communities and villages. (Assaly, 2024).Even now the RSF targets the Masalit and other non-Arab groups of majority-Massalit neighbourhoods with evidence corroborating systematically dismantled neighborhoods, civilian killings, forcible displacement, and torture (Gallopin, 2025).

Obstruction of aid

Sudan’s health system has been pushed to the brink of collapse by the ongoing conflict with increasingly deadly attacks on health care structures, mass displacement, lack of medical supplies, and shortages of health care workers and funding. Since the start of the conflict  in 2023 the World Health Organization has verified 201 attacks on health care, resulting in 1858 deaths and 490 injuries. Just this year an estimated 33.7 million people will need humanitarian aid (World Health Organization, 2026). Children make up half of those expected to need lifesaving aid (UNICEF, 2026). Regardless of the need for aid both forces have willfully obstructed aid movement. SAF-aligned authorities have imposed a de facto blockade on medical supplies in areas of Khartoum controlled by the RSF. And the RSF’s widespread looting of aid has prevented civilians from accessing  it. Both forces have also prevented aid from reaching civilians in need in Darfur (Human Rights Watch, 2025).

An UN expert said that “both the SAF and the RSF are using food as a weapon and starving civilians” (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2024). With famine conditions having been confirmed in Al Fasher and Kadugli, and with the risk of famine in 20 additional areas, more than 21 million people are facing acute hunger (World Food Programme, 2025).

Financing of the genocide

RSF leader Dagalo controls some of Sudan’s gold mines, and it is suspected that he smuggles gold to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (Rickett, n.d.) (Financial Times, 2025). In fact, circa 90% of Sudan’s gold exports finds its way to the UAE. In exchange for this gold the UAE is backing the RSF with military equipment and a wide range of weapons and ammunition. The UAE conducts these arm supplies to the RSF through a complex network of supply chains via Libya, Chad, and Uganda (Campaign Against Arms Trade, 2025). Amnesty International also reported the presence of armoured personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles from the UAE in various parts of Sudan (Amnesty International, 2025b). Furthermore, the UAE also possesses 50.000 hectares of agricultural land in Sudan. Considering that the UAE does not contain much agricultural land, it is important for them to keep this (Oxfam Novib, 2025). This could be another reason for the UAE to keep fueling the conflict. Moreover, recently manufactured weapons and military equipment form China, Russia, and Turkey were also imported into Sudan, and smuggled to Dafur where there is a considerable chance of them being used for significant violations of international human rights and humanitarian law (Amnesty International, n.d.).

Because of the billion-dollar trade with the UAE (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, 2024), thus indirectly financing weapons sent from the UAE to Sudan, the Netherlands is complicit in the destructive violence in the country. Additionally, the Netherlands also relaxed its arms export policy towards the UAE, among others, in 2023. As a result, arms export licenses worth 5.7 million euros were issued just last year (Oxfam Novib, 2025).These arms, financed by the Dutch government, eventually are the same arms being used to further spread violence and death in Sudan.

It is important to keep speaking up about human rights and its violations in Sudan, raising awareness is an important step towards ending this terrible conflict. However, there are also ways to get directly involved and help the people of Sudan. Initiating or signing a petition, donating, educating yourself, and advocating for change are some examples on how you can help Sudan right now.

References

African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies. (2025). We were Threatened With Rape and Violence for Being Masalit. https://files.cdn-files-a.com/uploads/7315212/normal_6943ccb67e0fe.pdf

Amnesty International. (n.d.). Human rights in Sudan. https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/africa/east-africa-the-horn-and-great-lakes/sudan/report-sudan/

Amnesty International. (2023). “Death came to our home” war crimes and civilian suffering in Sudan. https://www.amnesty.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/AFR-54.7037.2023.pdf

Amnesty International. (2025a). “They raped all of us” sexual violence against women and girls in Sudan. https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AFR5492012025ENGLISH.pdf 

Amnesty International. (2025b, February 5). New weapons fuelling the Sudan conflict. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2024/07/new-weapons-fuelling-the-sudan-conflict/

Amnesty International. (2026, January 5). Destruction and violence in Sudan. https://www.amnesty.org/en/projects/sudan-conflict/

Assaly, J. (2024, April 14). Breaches of the Genocide Convention in Darfur, Sudan (April 2023–April 2024): An Independent Inquiry. Raoul Wallenberg Centre For Human Rights. https://www.raoulwallenbergcentre.org/en/news/2024-04-14 

Campaign Against Arms Trade. (2025, October 31). Genocide in Sudan, the role of the UAE, and the complicity of the west. https://caat.org.uk/news/genocide-in-sudan-the-role-of-the-uae-and-the-complicity-of-the-west/

Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek. (2024, September 10). Nederland Handelsland – export, import en investeringen, 2024. https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/publicatie/2024/37/nederland-handelsland-export-import-en-investeringen-2024

D’Addario, S. (2025, November 3). Women-Led peace-building in Sudan: When will the world recognize the struggle? The Organization For World Peace. https://theowp.org/reports/women-led-peace-building-in-sudan-when-will-the-world-recognize-the-struggle/

Financial Times. (2025). Record prices fuel surge in Sudan conflict gold smuggling. https://www.ft.com/content/e093c5ed-4a22-4d0d-b3df-4812e265021e

Gallopin, J. (2024, May 9). “The Massalit will not come home”. In Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/report/2024/05/09/massalit-will-not-come-home/ethnic-cleansing-and-crimes-against-humanity-el

Human Rights Council. (2024). Report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan (Advanced unedited version) (A/HRC/57/23) In ReliefWeb. https://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/report-independent-international-fact-finding-mission-sudan-advance-unedited-version-ahrc5723

Human Rights Watch. (2025, January 16). Sudan. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2025/country-chapters/sudan

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2024, June 26). Using starvation as a weapon of war in Sudan must stop: UN experts. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/06/using-starvation-weapon-war-sudan-must-stop-un-experts

Oxfam Novib. (2025, November 10). Sudan: hoe Nederland bijdraagt aan de oorlog. https://www.oxfamnovib.nl/actueel/blogs/4784-we-moeten-het-hebben-over-sudan

Rickett, O. (n.d.). How the UAE kept the Sudan war raging. Middle East Eye. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/sudan-uae-war-arms-trade-rsf

UNICEF. (2026, January 9). Children in Sudan have endured “1,000 days of agony”. https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/children-sudan-have-endured-1000-days-agony

UN Women. (2025, April 9). For lasting peace in Sudan, women must lead peace efforts. https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/feature-story/2025/04/for-lasting-peace-in-sudan-women-must-lead-peace-efforts

World Food Programme. (2025, March 27). Sudan. https://www.wfp.org/countries/sudan

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