Hanaan was 18 when men from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) raped her as she walked to a makeshift shelter in a displacement camp in South Darfur. Stopped by four men on motorbikes, she and a friend were seized. “Two took each girl, and they raped us,” she told Doctors Without Borders (MSF). She described lasting physical and emotional damage: a constant heaviness in her body and pain from being beaten with guns across her back.
A new MSF report, There Is Something I Want to Tell You…, documents widespread sexual violence across Sudan and describes it as a defining characteristic of the conflict. MSF’s data, gathered from programmes in two of Sudan’s 18 states, show that between January 2024 and November 2025, 3,396 survivors of sexual violence sought treatment at MSF-supported facilities in North and South Darfur. Those figures represent only a fraction of the likely total. Women and girls accounted for 97 percent of the people treated. MSF found that the RSF and allied militias were primarily responsible for systematic abuse.
“Sexual violence is a defining feature of this conflict — not confined to front lines, but pervasive across communities,” said Ruth Kauffman, MSF emergency health manager. She added that displacement, the breakdown of community support, limited access to healthcare and entrenched gender inequalities are enabling continued abuses across the country.
MSF reported treating more than 140 survivors who fled to Tawila after the RSF captured el-Fasher, North Darfur’s capital, on 26 October 2025. Of those, 94 percent said they were attacked by armed men, many while trying to escape. The report documents assaults carried out deliberately to humiliate and terrorize non-Arab communities, echoing earlier atrocities such as the dismantling of Zamzam camp.
Survivors described attacks in fields, markets, displacement camps and other community settings, not just on front lines. Children were among the victims: in South Darfur, one in five survivors treated was under 18, including 41 children younger than five.
MSF is urging the UN, donor governments and humanitarian agencies to urgently scale up health and protection services across Darfur and the rest of Sudan. The organization called on all parties to the conflict to stop sexual violence and to hold perpetrators to account, and it stressed the need for expanded medical, psychological and protection support for survivors.
The report highlights that the recorded cases are likely an undercount, constrained by access, stigma and the collapse of local services. MSF says a coordinated international response is needed to reach more survivors, prevent further abuses and ensure long-term care and accountability for those affected by the violence.