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18-06-2026
GENEVA/ KHARTOUM: Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) admits its staff were accused of sexually abusing at least 59 Sudanese refugees who had fled the civil war in search of safety.
Young girls were exploited in some cases and often food or jobs were offered in exchange for sex.
The offences were committed in eastern Chad and date back to 2024 about a year into Sudan’s still-raging civil war.
MSF says it has sacked 18 culprits but tells media, it was unable to identify some of the other alleged perpetrators.
The aid organization also found patterns of exploitation that might amount to “sexual trafficking”, its own internal report suggested in July.
Some of the victims reportedly chose not to speak out about the abuse because they feared access to vital aid would be withheld in retaliation. Those who did report the abuse sometimes received no reply or support, MSF has admitted in its own report, while official complaints procedures were mostly ineffective.
“This misconduct represents a serious breach of MSF’s values and responsibilities, and we deeply regret the harm caused,” MSF said in response to reporters who first investigated the misconduct.
Sudan plunged into civil war three years ago following a vicious power struggle between its army and a powerful paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
It is now widely recognized as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, more than 11 million people have been forced from their homes and 28 million face acute hunger.
Although there is no definitive death toll, the dead are thought to number at least 150,000 and could be as high as 400,000.
Mass sexual violence has been widely documented as a weapon of war in this conflict, men, women and children have been targeted including babies as young as a year old.
Humanitarian workers in multiple countries around the world have been accused of sexual exploitation in recent years, despite promises to end such abuses.
Armed men are raping and sexually assaulting children as young as one during Sudan’s civil war, says the UN children’s agency, UNICEF.
So traumatized are the survivors that some say they have attempted to end their lives.
Mass sexual violence has been widely documented as a weapon of war in the country’s nearly two-year conflict but UNICEF’s report is the first detailed account about the impact of rape on young children in Sudan.
A third of the victims were boys, who typically face “unique challenges” in reporting such crimes and seeking the help they need.
UNICEF says that, although 221 rape cases against children have been officially reported since the start of 2024, the true number is likely to be much higher.
Sudan is a socially conservative country where huge societal stigma stops survivors and their families from speaking out about rape, as does the fear of retribution from armed groups. The UNICEF report provides an appalling window into the abuse of children in the country’s civil war.
Perhaps its most shocking revelation is that 16 of the victims were under the age of five years, including four infants.
UNICEF does not say who is responsible, but other UN investigations have blamed the majority of rapes on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), saying RSF fighters had a pattern of using sexual violence to terrorize civilians and suppress opposition to their advances. (Int’l News Desk)
