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Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias, at war with the army, of committing widespread sexual violence against women in southern Sudan.

It is the latest such report by international monitors alleging sexual violence during Sudan's 20-month war which has led to what the United States called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

In its new report, HRW said it had documented dozens of cases since September 2023 involving women and girls aged between seven and 50 who were subjected to sexual violence, including gang rape and sexual slavery, in South Kordofan state.

The latest details follow a separate report last week from the New York-based watchdog which more broadly accused the RSF and allied Arab militias of carrying out numerous abuses, mainly against ethnic Nuba civilians, in South Kordofan state from December 2023 to March 2024.

These attacks, it said, "had not been widely reported" and constituted "war crimes".

In October, the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan said both sides have committed abuses including torture and sexual violence.

But it accused the paramilitaries, in particular, of "sexual violence on a large scale", including "gang rapes and abducting and detaining victims in conditions that amount to sexual slavery".

"The sheer scale of sexual violence we have documented in Sudan is staggering," said Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the fact-finding mission.

The RSF dismissed the UN findings as "social media propaganda".

Speaking to reporters in Nairobi last month, RSF member Mohamad Mokhtar said the paramilitaries documented only one rape in areas under their control, adding that they had carried out "medical checks" on women to verify rape allegations.

Mokhtar also said that any rights violations were committed by "other parties" after RSF interventions in certain areas.

'They kept raping me'

The conflict, which erupted in mid-April 2023, has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, internally displaced more than eight million, according to the UN, and forced more than three million others to seek safety in neighbouring countries.

In South Kordofan, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), a rebel group, maintains a foothold.

The SPLM-N faction, which also controls parts of Blue Nile state, is led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu who refused to join other Sudan rebels in signing a 2020 peace deal with the government, as he sought a secular state as a prerequisite.

Hilu also at that time refused talks with RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, linking him with atrocities.

SPLM-N has clashed with both the army and RSF in parts of South Kordofan since April 2023, when the war between the paramilitaries and the Sudanese Armed Forces began, HRW said.

According to the HRW report, many of the victims were gang-raped at their or their neighbours' homes, often in front of families, while some were abducted and held in conditions of enslavement.

One survivor, a 35-year-old Nuba woman, described being gang-raped by six RSF fighters who stormed her family compound and killed her husband and son when they tried to intervene.

"They kept raping me, all six of them," she said.

Another survivor, aged 18, recounted being taken in February with 17 others to a base where they joined 33 detained women and girls.

"On a daily basis for three months, the fighters raped and beat the women and girls, including the 18-year-old survivor, crimes that also constitute sexual slavery," HRW said.

At times, the captives were even chained together, it said.

"These acts of sexual violence, which constitute war crimes underscore the urgent need for meaningful international action to protect civilians and deliver justice," HRW said in its report.

The UN's humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher raised the alarm late in November over an "epidemic of sexual violence" against women in Sudan, saying that the world "must do better".

In its initial report last week, HRW urged the UN and African Union to "urgently deploy a mission to protect civilians in Sudan."

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