Sudan Media Forum
Aisha Al-Samani, Madaniya News
Khartoum, July 9, 2025, (Journalists Network) — Since war erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023, the women of Sudan have been disproportionately victimized. The conflict has extinguished their most basic hopes—for their children’s education, for healthcare, and for a life of dignity. They never imagined they would face a time when death would seem a mercy, their dignity violated while enduring harrowing ordeals of kidnapping, rape, and exploitation.
On June 26, 2023, Siham found herself reliving a childhood nightmare. Decades after being separated from her own family in similar circumstances, tragedy struck again. Her 19-year-old daughter, Ruqia, left their home in Omdurman to run errands and never returned.
“Since she vanished, I haven’t stopped searching… my heart aches for her,” Siham says. “I’ve gone to public squares and mosques, handing out flyers. Fearing the worst, I checked the hospitals, the morgues, the markets. We thought she might have been hit by a stray bullet, but there’s no trace of her… not a single word.”
Refusing to despair, Siham pleaded with both the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces for help. Both took Ruqia’s photo and promised to investigate. But days bled into weeks, and weeks into months, with no news.
“We have left no stone unturned,” Siham continues. “I’ve searched every corner, hoping for any news of my daughter… but there has been nothing.”
Now, more than a year later, Siham’s search is sustained by an unyielding hope. “Just as I found my own family after so many years, I believe I will find Ruqia,” she says. “I see her in my dreams, wearing her school bag, studying for her exams. She always dreamed of studying aviation to become a flight attendant.”
Her search led her to human rights organizations, including “SIHA” (Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa), which championed her cause. This collaboration resulted in the documentary film “Where is Ruqia?”,Watch it, a chronicle of the family’s agonizing search and a spotlight on just one of the hundreds of stories lost in the chaos of war. The film details the broader crisis of missing women and girls, noting that as of November 2024, 231 cases had been documented, with the vast majority still unresolved.
Broken Families
Ruqia’s story is not an isolated case; it is one of hundreds involving girls and women who have been forcibly disappeared since the war began.
The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) has recorded 291 cases of forced disappearance involving women and girls between April 15, 2023, and June 2025. Similarly, the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) has registered 123 cases, seven of whom are minors.
These are not mere statistics; they represent the daily anguish of families torn apart. For these mothers, fathers, and siblings, sleep offers no respite, and life has lost its meaning. Every day, they desperately chase any glimmer of hope that might lead them to their loved ones.
“Are they alive? Have they eaten? Are they safe? What horrors are they facing?”
These questions haunt the families of the missing, stealing their peace and tormenting their minds.
In an interview with Madaniya News, Shawqi Yaqoub, a lawyer with ACJPS, confirmed the center had documented 123 missing women, including seven minors, but has only managed to establish contact with 39 of the families.
Hadeel Jaafar of SIHA’s anti-sexual violence unit told Madaniya News that the network’s 291 documented cases range from a 5-month-old infant who vanished with her mother to an 80-year-old woman.
Meanwhile, an informed source in one of Sudan’s states reported monitoring 350 disappearances, mostly of girls aged 14 to 17. According to the source, 84 of them eventually returned, with many testifying that they had been subjected to brutal sexual exploitation and severe physical abuse by RSF soldiers.
A Wall of Silence
According to Shawqi Yaqoub, documenting these cases is fraught with challenges. While the ACJPS relies on a network of on-the-ground monitors and online reports, many families are hesitant to come forward. “Families fear the social stigma, especially in rural areas,” he noted. “As a result, they often conceal the disappearances of female relatives, and official reports are rare.”
The work is further complicated by immense logistical hurdles, including communication blackouts, the expanding warzone, a general media blackout, and the spread of partisan misinformation. Yaqoub adds that disappearances are far more prevalent in areas controlled by militia forces.
A SIHA report obtained by Madaniya News confirms these challenges. The organization primarily gathers data from public sources, including the “Mafqood” (Missing) initiative. However, verifying these cases is difficult due to unreachable phone numbers and the reluctance of families to share information, likely out of fear of reprisal, especially if they still reside in RSF-controlled territory. Furthermore, social media posts about missing women are often deleted without explanation, further obscuring the truth and making it difficult to confirm their status.
While urban centers have seen more reports, the crisis in rural villages is dangerously underreported, masking the true scale of the tragedy.
Patterns of Abduction
The SIHA report identifies a grim, recurring pattern: a sharp spike in disappearances in the initial days and weeks after the RSF invades a new area. This was first observed in Khartoum and later in the states of Gezira and Sennar.
In Khartoum, most disappearances occurred between April and May 2023. The capital is home to numerous university dormitories and independent single women, making them particularly vulnerable when RSF forces began storming residential buildings, spreading panic and terror.
One tragic case cited is that of Hala Ahmed Ishaq. On May 28, 2023, her body was discovered inside a car that had been commandeered by the RSF. The vehicle was riddled with bullets, and Hala had been killed by a gunshot to the head. Given that the RSF controlled the vehicle, it is highly probable she was abducted before her death.
Many disappearances also occur when women are in transit, either fleeing conflict zones or performing daily tasks like fetching food or medicine. The simple act of stepping outside can lead to a woman vanishing without a trace. The family of Jihad Fadlallah Suleiman Nasser, a mother in her thirties, reported that she went missing in July 2023 while out searching for medicine for her son. She was last seen in a vehicle with a friend and an RSF soldier. When the family contacted the soldier, he claimed to have dropped them off and warned them not to call again.
Forced Servitude and a Path to Justice
Disturbingly, there are confirmed reports of women being forced into domestic servitude. In multiple locations across Khartoum and Wad Madani, women are held captive in homes and forced to cook, clean, and perform other services for RSF soldiers. They are, in effect, enslaved.
In response, ACJPS is mobilizing its network of lawyers and psychologists to provide legal and psychosocial support to victims’ families. “We help them form groups to demand their rights and advocate for their cause,” said Yaqoub. “We also pursue strategic litigation through regional and international bodies, including the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances, to help survivors bring their cases forward.”
While there are no precise statistics on how many women have returned, Yaqoub confirmed that some have been released or have escaped.
An Urgent Call for Action
In response to the escalating crisis, the SIHA network’s report concludes with an urgent call for decisive action. It demands the immediate and safe return of all individuals abducted or unlawfully detained by warring parties and insists that government authorities must intensify their investigations to reunite families and hold perpetrators accountable, fulfilling their obligations under international law. The report stresses the critical need for a robust network of civil society organizations to improve documentation and support affected families, alongside community-based protection systems to prevent future abductions by sharing information on high-risk areas. To amplify these efforts, SIHA urges engagement with international bodies, such as the UN’s Committee on Enforced Disappearances, to ensure the global community cannot ignore this deepening tragedy.
The Sudan Media Forum and its member institutions publish this material, prepared by Female Journalists Network, to follow up on one of the most serious repercussions of the current war in Sudan. This article reflects the profound pain of the forced disappearance of women, which has occurred in staggering numbers, and underscores the need for diligent work to prevent this violence and mitigate its devastating effects.
