According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Rapid support forces (RSF) are targeting women and girls of non-Arab origin in the Darfur region in the west. The organization has documented 78 rape victims between April and June.
Several of the victims have said they were singled out because of their African origins or because they were activists who reported on human rights violations in the ongoing conflict in Sudan.
A group of 30 independent UN experts also expressed concern over reports of “widespread occurrences of rape and other forms of sexual violence”.
“Sudanese women and girls in urban areas as well as in Darfur are particularly vulnerable to violence,” they state, calling on RSF to uphold humanitarian and human rights.
Amnesty has also made similar accusations against the paramilitary force.
The conflict, which has plunged the country into chaos, is now in its fifth month. In April, the tense situation between Sudan’s army and its rival RSF exploded into open violence.
The RSF was formed in 2013 out of the Janjawid militias – armed groups that Sudan’s former dictator Omar al-Bashir had sent out to spread terror and quell the rebellion in Darfur in the early 2000s.