Famine looms in Sudan as civil war survivors tell of killings and rapes

Sudan’s civil war could trigger the world’s largest hunger crisis, say UN officials. Civilians have given graphic accounts of rape, ethnic violence and street executions. There are also fears that a repeat of what the US called genocide 20 years ago may be beginning to unfold. In mid-February, the Sudanese army retook the city - one of three along the River Nile that form Sudan#39;s wider capital, Khartoum.

Civilians have now started to return, but mortars, like the one that landed in the middle of this main street, still fall daily. The army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been fighting for control of Khartoum for nearly a year. The RSF has taken control of areas south of the capital, as well as large swathes of Darfur. Women who escaped to neighbouring Chad have given the BBC accounts of being raped - sometimes multiple times.

Part of the front line now runs along the Nile, which separates Khartoum on the eastern side from Omdurman. Men in the camps told us they had escaped street executions and abductions. The military tell us RSF snipers are stationed in apartment blocks across the water from Sudanese army positions at the badly damaged parliament building. More than three million people have fled Khartoum State in the past 11 months.

Some Omdurman residents have refused to leave. Most we meet are elderly. Most vehicles on the roads are military. The open space opposite is covered with makeshift graves.

There are 150 people here. I knew many of them. Sudanese military has been criticised for its heavy use of aerial bombing. The Sudanese military says it takes precautions to protect civilians.

BBC Arabic special correspondent Feras Kilani has just returned from Sudan. He got a rare insight into life in the country during civil war. People here hold both sides responsible for the destruction in and around the capital. Many accuse the RSF of looting and attacks during the time it controlled the area.

It is also known that women were raped in their homes and groped during security checks. The BBC Africa correspondent talks to survivors of ethnic violence and sexual assault. Victims of rape can face a lifetime of stigma and marginalisation from their own families and communities. Many people in Omdurman did not want to discuss the issue.

But more than 1,000km to the west, in the sprawling refugee camps over the border in Chad, the volume of emerging testimonies is forcing a new, grim, level of openness. Amina was caught by militiamen as she fled her hometown of Ardamata. She was kept captive for a whole day, she tells us. Amina says she is not married and was a virgin when she was caught.

She desperately hopes her family will never know. The RSF and its allies seized a Sudanese military garrison in Ardamata in November. It follows violence earlier in the year - a recent UN report says that more than 10,000 people are believed to have been killed in the area since last April. The UN has documented about 120 victims of conflict-related sexual violence across the country.

Maryamu - not her real name - says she was raped by armed men wearing the turban-style headdresses typical of Arab fighters in the area. She had difficulty walking afterwards, she says, sobbing as she describes fleeing. Separately, there have also been some reports of sexual assaults by the Sudanese military. Zahra Khamis, a social worker who is a refugee herself, runs the group.

Both Amina and Maryamu are from black African communities, and Ms Khamis says these, particularly the Masalit ethnic group, are being targeted in Darfur. The RSF has its roots in an Arab militia called the Janjaweed, mobilised by former President Omar al-Bashir. Ms Khamis believes rape is being used in this conflict #34;as a weapon of revenge. They are doing this to the women because rape leaves an impact on society and the family.

They have denied the charges and no-one has been convicted. One RSF member posted a video on social media in November. He said: “If we rape your daughter or your girl, it#39;s an eye for an eye” Sudanese authorities say they are investigating allegations of rape and sexual assault by a group of young men. The group, the Sudanese Defence Force, says it is investigating the allegations.

The Sudanese government says the allegations are false and that the men were not involved in any wrongdoing. Video shows five unarmed men lined up on a street in Ardamata in November. It was filmed, apparently by one of the armed men, and posted online. The RSF said it would set up a process to investigate alleged human rights abuses by its forces, but the UN says no details have been given.

Ahmat says his cousin Amir and his friend Abbas died instantly, but he and the two others survived. Ahmat says he was abducted from near his home by members of the RSF and their allies. The video shows men dressed in the style typical of these forces. Sudan entered a fresh period of instability in 2019, when street protests and a military coup ended the near three-decade rule of Mr Bashir.

He says he saw them kill a mother and her newborn baby. If you are from the Masalit community and, if you are, they automatically kill you," he says. Last April, when the RSF redeployed its members around the country, the Sudanese army saw the move as a threat. A joint military-civilian government was established, but that was overthrown in another coup by the army and RSF in October 2021.

The two allies fell out over the proposed move towards civilian rule. Sudan is in north-east Africa and has a history of instability. The military toppled long-time leader Omar al-Bashir in 2019 after mass protests. It then overthrew a power-sharing government in 2021, putting two men at the helm.

The head of the army and his deputy disagree on how to restore civilian rule. Zubaida Ammar Muhammad, a mother of eight, tells us she has leukaemia. She has been in pain since April, when her medication ran out. She was unable to get more when the family fled from the Khartoum area.

Her husband volunteered to fight with the Sudanese military. In Port Sudan we also meet a group of Coptic Christians who have fled the capital, to escape RSF threats and attacks. The US says both sides have committed war crimes, and the RSF and its allied militias have also committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. Both sides deny the allegations.