The last two years of war between the Sudanese Armed Force and Rapid Support Forces have displaced over 10 million people in Khartoum, the nation’s capital, alongside regions like Darfur and Al Jazirah state. Half of the population is estimated to face acute food insecurity and there have been over 600 attacks on healthcare personnel since April 15 2023, with four attacks on healthcare facilities in January 2025. While recent statistics on maternal and reproductive health have been largely unavailable due to the conflict, maternal mortality in Sudan was among the highest in the world prior to April 2023 and access to quality sexual and reproductive healthcare has been impeded by displacement-related loss of healthcare personnel. Access to SRH services has been further impeded by stockouts of essential medicines such as emergency contraception, injectable long-acting contraception, and antibiotics for sexually transmitted infections.
Despite widespread underreporting of SGBV due to cultural stigma, there are indications that sexual violence has been weaponized as an act of war. In Al Jazirah state, government officials have reported 890 cases of rape perpetrated by RSF members, resulting in 125 unwanted pregnancies. In some cases, sexual violence has resulted in severe injury and death. Women have reported both suicidal ideation and attempt after experiencing sexual violence. The actual numbers are expected to be much higher than what was recorded. Indeed, most cases and stories have gone untold; women’s rights activists estimate that only 2% of cases are reported in Sudan, and globally only 1% of adolescent girls seek help after experiencing sexual violence.
In addition to risks of sexual violence as a weapon of war by armed groups, internally displaced women face sexual exploitation within temporary resettlement and camp sites. School buildings and other facilities have been repurposed to house displaced families and there are often over ten people residing together from multiple families within the same room. In this context, there is no privacy, and these risks to women are compounded within host communities, where women often receive threats as they leave IDP sites to look for work or to purchase needed resources for their families.
In this context of amplified risks of SGBV and unmet need for healthcare services, the Sudanese Family Planning Association has worked with partner organizations to provide comprehensive care to SGBV survivors and has utilized social media to raise awareness about SGBV and available services for survivors. SFPA operates a four-pronged approach to addressing SGBV. Through a combination of direct clinical service points, partnerships and coordination with other NGOs, group-based discussions and individual home visits, SRH hotline, and social media strategy, the organization has been connecting survivors to care, providing medical services and referrals, and raising awareness and challenging stigmatization of SGBV.
SFPA operates 26 static clinics and has used multiple mechanisms to provide services across the development-humanitarian nexus. Through 39 mobile service delivery team deployments to reach IDP camps, SFPA reached over 20,000 people displaced by conflict in Umrakoba & Tunaydbah between June and November 2024. In addition to directly providing clinical SRH and SGBV services, mobile service delivery teams shared information about SGBV to 4,506 individuals through a combination of 1499 group-level awareness raising sessions in clinic waiting areas and home visits to assess health needs on a more confidential basis. Female youth attending group-based sessions in Umrakoba & Tunaydbah shared that they gained awareness about their rights and referral pathways for violence, and adult women reported that they learned strategies for protecting and listening to their children. At these first points of in-person contact, staff have received a number of SGBV disclosures and referred survivors to clinical services.
In addition to clinical services and in-person awareness-raising activities, SFPA has supported comprehensive care through coordination and partnerships with local and international NGOs. Survivors of sexual and gender-based violence must navigate a complex legal terrain as abortion is a crime in Sudan, only legally permissible in cases of rape, threats to the pregnant woman’s life, and foetal death within the womb. Women who become pregnant due to rape need police permission to undergo an abortion. In cases of pregnancy due to rape, partner organization Mutawinat obtains permission from police offices to provide abortion and SFPA directly performs the abortion for clients. SFPA also partners with an organization which provides shelter for women who become pregnant to ensure shelter and care through birth, and another organization provides financial support after birth.
SFPA has also expanded access to care through implementation of a call center, or hotline, for SGBV. The call center directly serves survivors through a hotline which connects them to an integrated care team comprised of an obstetrician, family planning providers, and psychosocial support counsellors. By calling a central number – 1700 – survivors can share information about their needs and connect to available services. In 2024, the hotline received a total of 79,900 calls and provided 1,544,297 digital services. SFPA provided 2,331 SGBV services, and 60% of digitally referred SGBV cases were followed up through health service delivery points. As the war intensified and over 50% of healthcare facilities closed in conflict-affected areas, the hotline became a lifeline for accessing health care, and 45.1% (696,186) of digital services were provided for non-SRH issues.
These services are complemented by a social media-based SGBV awareness strategy, implemented by youth workers connected to each SFPA branch. Through social media outlets such as TikTok, Facebook, and WhatsApp, SFPA has reached over 500,000 community members with information on SRHR and SGBV and challenging stigmatization of survivors. Youth workers have created virtual contests and games which have resulted in increasing engagement over time, with 37,000 interactions via Facebook alone.
SFPA’s social media strategy has yielded a surprising result: survivors have directly responded to campaigns implemented through outlets to seek resources for support. Social media posts have shared information about SFPA’s hotline and comms staff have provided referrals to clinical services. The organization identified 5,193 clients seeking SRH services through social media outreach, including for SGBV. SFPA’s Dr Limiaa Khalfalla noted the importance of handling such disclosures carefully and ensuring adequate training to protect confidentiality. The call center has been an essential service in responding to these disclosures as a central point of referral where survivors can readily access trained staff. Through IPPF’s STREAM3 funding, SFPA has trained ten employees and eighteen volunteers on topics such as SGBV fundamentals, the LIVES approach, clinical management of rape, and long-acting contraceptive methods.
when
country
Sudan
region
Arab World
