Rape survivors in Sudan unable to access contraception, anti-viral medication amid war

Survivors of rape in the Sudanese capital Khartoum are struggling to access emergency contraception, abortion medication and post-exposure anti-viral medication, The Guardian reported Wednesday.

Access to a warehouse where at least 47,000 post-rape medical kits are stored has been cut off since armed conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted in April.

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which supplies the kits to Sudan, told The Guardian that it did not know which of the warring sides were preventing access to the building.

The lack of availability has led Sudanese women to use social media to share information on where to find drugs to prevent pregnancies and disease.

Post-rape kits are regularly distributed in conflict situations. Along with the morning after pill and drugs to induce abortion, the kits also include vital medications such as post-exposure prophylaxes (PEP), used to prevent HIV infection.

A gynecologist friend tells me that among their medical networks they are being sent messages about rape incidents& requests for emergency contraceptives.

One incident she said was a girl asking for help for ‘2 daughters raped in front of their mother’.#KeepEyesonSudan#Sudan

— Nada. (@NadaWanni) May 15, 2023

Most of these medications are most effective within a 72-hour window, which means there must be prompt and easy access for rape victims. 

Salma Ishaq, the director of Sudan’s Combating Violence Against Women Unit, said that while there was limited availability of PEP, there is no way for Sudanese women to prevent pregnancies after rape. 

UNFPA delivered around 5,000 post-rape kits last month, but the medication has not been moved to where it is needed, with fighting concentrated around Khartoum and Darfur making it impossible to move it west into war zones.

Targeted attacks on medical warehouses in South Darfur have also depleted the much-needed medical supplies.

The RSF, which controls around 90% of Khartoum, have a brutal recent history of mass rape. During its previous incarnation as the Janjaweed militia, the paramilitary force was accused of using rape as a weapon of war during the two-decade long conflict in Darfur.

More recently, the RSF has been implicated in carrying out hundreds of rapes since anti-government and anti-coup protests began in Sudan in 2018, including more than 70 during the violent dispersal of a peaceful sit-in in 2019. 

There have been multiple accounts of rape by warring sides during the most recent conflict, but the fighting has made it difficult for such crimes to be documented. 

"Rapes are happening everywhere," Ishaq told The Guardian. "What is officially reported is likely just a small fraction of the cases."