In Sudan, women’s bodies are another battlefield, and rape a ‘tactic of war’

They stood in a tight row, wrapped in black abayas and emerald scarves. A half-torn Sudanese flag fluttered above their heads in the courtyard of a girls’ elementary school converted into a training center for aspiring female soldiers. In the dirt of the Hay El-Shati camp in Omdurman, around a hundred women were learning military discipline, weapons handling, karate and shooting.

They have been training five times a week, three hours a day, under the supervision of retired officers who had returned to service with the war that has been tearing Sudan apart since April 15, 2023. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Al-Burhan, are pitted against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, known as “Hemedti.” Throughout the areas controlled by the regular army, dozens of training centers of this kind have sprung up and thousands of female recruits, known as “mustanfeerat,” have answered the call.

“I hope they send me to the front line. I’m ready to give my soul for the homeland,” said Rana Othman, a 42-year-old former teacher, with a look of defiance in her eyes. In reality, the chances of these women joining the battlefield were slim to none. At the end of their training, they will not be armed. At best, some could be placed in the military administration as communications officers or nurses. The many roadside signs urging them to enlist bore witness to this: The recruitment of more and more Sudanese women into the SAF serves propaganda rather than the war effort. Nonetheless, every one of them claimed to have come here of their own free will.

In the schoolyard, the regiment, made up of women aged between 18 and 60, sang along to the national anthem. For most of them, this training is a way of protecting themselves. “We learn to defend ourselves. We gain self-confidence, and then we find ourselves among sisters at a time when Sudanese women are going through hell,” explained Riham El-Hadi, one of the youngest girls. “We’ve become targets. We don’t want to live in fear anymore,” continued this 18-year-old high-school student, wearing mascara and lip gloss.

They were unanimous: The war that has been going on for 18 months has left them feeling more vulnerable than ever in the face of an explosion in sexist and sexual violence committed by both sides. Cases of harassment, rape (sometimes gang rape), forced marriage, abduction, sexual slavery and other abuses are multiplying. In a report published on October 23 by UN experts, the RSF are held responsible for most of the abuses committed.

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