Muhamad Yehia
Women and girls have been especially impacted by the almost two-year war between the Sudanese army and the rebel-turned-paramilitary
Rapid Support Forces, with sexual violence used widely as a war weapon, and vital health services cut off in conflict areas.
Yet many of those in need are still finding support – psychological, medical, and economic – from dedicated, women-led mutual aid groups set up across the country as part of a wider grassroots response to the world’s largest humanitarian emergency.
“To make life easier for women, surviving the war requires collective work and strength in solidarity,” said Huyam*, a mutual aid volunteer from southeastern Sennar state, where the army now controls key areas after an advance last year by the RSF.
Huyam said the Sennar women’s group was set up to assist women and girls displaced by RSF attacks. She said the group focuses primarily on providing sanitary products, first aid for survivors of sexual violence, and vitamins for pregnant women.
The women’s groups are known as women’s response rooms, and form a key part of the broader neighbourhood-based and youth-driven solidarity networks called emergency response rooms.
These networks draw on a rich heritage of social solidarity in Sudan, and now number several hundred across the country. They are operated by thousands of volunteers, who make daily meals and keep services like power and water running.
Mutual aid has been especially critical in Sudan as international aid groups have failed to consistently access conflict areas. This is despite the war producing the world’s largest displacement crisis, uprooting over 12 million people, and the biggest hunger crisis, with famine detected in at least five areas (and projected in five more by May).
To better understand the work of women-focused mutual aid, The New Humanitarian spoke to nearly a dozen members of women’s response rooms across Sudan. The reporting is part of a series exploring different aspects of mutual aid in the country.
Volunteers said the groups offer a lifeline for many women and girls, arguing that their needs have been especially neglected by the international aid response. They said the groups also offer a support system for members, helping them cope with the war.
However, the volunteers said they face a dizzying number of challenges, from sexual violence perpetrated against them by RSF soldiers, to army-aligned authorities restricting their access to displacement camps where women are often most in need.
“Many volunteers face displacement or threats, and some even continue their work from abroad, fundraising and raising awareness on social media. They are ordinary citizens affected by the war.”
Volunteers said they also lack funding. They aren’t compensated as individuals, and though their groups get some money from international donors, it is a small fraction compared to what the UN and foreign NGOs receive, despite their comparatively limited access.
Mutual aid groups do receive generous amounts from Sudanese benefactors and diaspora groups, but those funds are still limited, which means communal kitchens regularly close down, and unpaid volunteers often burn out.
“Many volunteers face displacement or threats, and some even continue their work from abroad, fundraising and raising awareness on social media,” said Huyam, from the Sennar women’s group. “They are ordinary citizens affected by the war.”
Khadim Allah, a volunteer in Northern state – which has been accommodating displaced people since the outset of the conflict in April 2023 – added that her group has consistently lacked money to support pregnant women and new mothers.
“We rely on collaboration with local organisations to provide the necessary supplies,” Allah said. “Our goal is to establish a system that can be replicated by other women’s emergency rooms across Sudan,” she added.
Documenting and combatting sexual violence
Of the more than 30 million people in need of aid, more than half are women and girls, according to the UN. Among the most vulnerable are hundreds of thousands of pregnant and breastfeeding women with acute malnutrition and few healthcare options.
Women and girls are also facing harrowing levels of sexual violence. Several recent reports have documented how armed men – especially members of the RSF – have committed rapes and gang rapes, as well as kidnapping women into sexual slavery.
International aid groups have struggled to respond – to both the needs of women and girls, and to the broader humanitarian disaster – because of the insecurity, and because the army and the RSF regularly block them from delivering relief to areas controlled by one another. They often fail to adequately push back against these constraints because they want to preserve relationships and are afraid of risking any limited and fragile access gains.
Nour, a volunteer from the East Nile district in Khartoum, the capital city, much of which is controlled by the RSF, said monitoring, documenting, and responding to cases of sexual violence is one of the primary missions of the women’s response rooms there.
When cases arise, Nour said volunteers offer medical and confidential psychological support, away from the scrutiny of the RSF. But Nour said there are also “hundreds of women and young people” held in RSF detention centres who they cannot support.
“There is an urgent need for comprehensive awareness campaigns to address the realities of rape, and sexual and gender-based violence, advocating for the rights and safety of women.”
Nour said women volunteers are also targeted by the RSF. She described instances of harassment at markets where they go to source sanitary products, and demands by RSF members that they engage in sexual acts in exchange for protection from other RSF soldiers.
Huyam, the volunteer from Sennar, said there have been many sexual violence and exploitation cases in her state over the past year. She said women often delay seeking help because they fear judgment from their families and communities.
“There is an urgent need for comprehensive awareness campaigns to address the realities of rape, and sexual and gender-based violence, advocating for the rights and safety of women,” Huyam told The New Humanitarian.
A second volunteer from Sennar, who asked for their name not to be used, said some pregnant women who are survivors of rape have delayed abortions to the second and third trimester because of the fear of social stigma.
To help sexual abuse survivors, the Sennar volunteers said they have a psychological support unit operated by trained mental health professionals. They said there are currently five staff members, but only their transportation costs are covered.
Helping displaced people
Volunteers in other areas said their primary work has been helping displaced women and children who have escaped conflict and are living in dire conditions either with host families, in camps, or in public buildings.
Istabraq, a volunteer from a women’s response room in Gedaref, an army-controlled state in eastern Sudan, said her group formed in mid-2024 as large numbers of people escaped RSF attacks in adjoining Sennar.
The group was established by activists and feminist organisations that were part of a Facebook group – Gedaref Students and Women’s Gathering – that contributed to organising protests during the 2019 revolution that ousted ex-dictator Omar al-Bashir.
Istabraq said the group has a horizontal structure with no formal leadership, and is divided into different departments: fundraising, protection, logistics, psychological support, medical care, and media.
“Our primary goal was to provide women and children with essential hygiene supplies and to establish mobile clinics in shelters and schools,” Istabraq said. “We also aimed to train women on self-protection and create child-friendly spaces.”
The Gedaref group started by self-financing with donations from groups that formed the women’s response room. It has since received financial support from well-wishers, international NGOs, and from Sudanese national NGOs.
However, the group has faced several challenges. Istabraq said volunteers require movement permits from army-aligned authorities to do relief work, and have also experienced violence and extortion from military intelligence officers who supervise displacement centres.
A second volunteer in Gedaref said the group never uses the worst feminist to describe its initiatives, fearing the army and aligned authorities would shut it down on the pretence that it was being political.
“By using the term ‘women’s [initiatives]’, we are perceived as being a humanitarian initiative focused solely on assisting women,” the volunteer said. “We avoid accusations of having a hidden agenda.”
Bureaucratic obstacles
Other volunteers described facing similar problems with army-aligned authorities.
Razan, a volunteer in the eastern state of Kassala, said the Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC), a government agency that manages aid work, often restricts her group’s access to displacement centres.
Razan said HAC and national aid groups that have a close relationship to it, don’t provide accurate information about certain issues affecting camp residents, especially when it concerns rights violations and violence against displaced women.
Despite the challenges, Razan said the group has still managed to launch several initiatives for displaced women, including projects focusing on psychological and legal support, and awareness campaigns about seasonal diseases.
Razan said the group has also received funding from the public to provide grants for 20 displaced women and girls who are struggling to complete their studies because of the cost of accommodation and tuition fees.
Amina, a member of a women’s response room in Adeela, a locality in Darfur, said her group struggles to navigate rules imposed by the RSF, which controls almost all of the western region.
To “avoid arrests or violence” volunteers must seek permission from the RSF-managed local administration before conducting training workshops or delivering assistance, Amina said.
She said poor transport networks and weak internet connectivity adds to the challenges facing volunteers. Members often have to walk long distances to attend meetings, or have to focus on daily errands like sourcing water from wells.
Still, like all of the women’s response rooms researched for this story, the Adeela group has managed to support a significant number of displaced women and girls, many of whom arrived in the area after escaping RSF attacks in other parts of Darfur.
“Women have suffered greatly, especially pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, girls from vulnerable families, adolescent girls, single mothers, and the elderly,” said Mihrab, a founding member of the Adeela group.
Mihrab said volunteers have joined forces with other women’s groups in neighbouring areas, forming a structure that has three representatives from each area who then make decisions based on a democratic voting system.
Recent projects run by the Adeela group include initiatives focused on raising awareness of breast cancer and mental health issues, and programmes providing women and girls with essential hygiene supplies.
Money, however, remains tight. Initially, the group relied on self-funding and donations to kickstart their efforts, Mihrab said. They have recently received funds from international NGOs and UN agencies, but projects are often short-term.
Future feminist organising
Though much of the work of the women’s response rooms has been emergency-orientated, they have also found time to establish and manage learning and recreational centres for out-of-school children.
Several volunteers described running safe spaces and workshops focused on literacy, numeracy, and art, though others said their centres have closed down because there is no long-term funding to pay teachers and purchase school materials.
Volunteers also described running economic empowerment projects that include skills-training programmes and the promotion of small cooperatives engaged in local trades like soap-making and handicrafts.
Nour, the volunteer from Khartoum, said a cooperative in her area has formed an agricultural association that cultivates vegetables near the Nile. She said half of the products are donated to communal kitchens while the rest are sold.
Despite the challenges involved in mutual aid work, several volunteers said they have been inspired by the collective organising and would like to use it as a springboard for future feminist activism once the war is over.
“It has the potential to serve as a starting point for larger groups of women to demand their rights and unify their vision,” said Alaa, a volunteer and photographer who is part of a women’s response room in Gedaref.
Nour, who coordinates efforts to help rape survivors in her neighbourhood, said the volunteering has helped her get through a deeply difficult moment, with the solidarity of fellow volunteers bringing both physical and emotional protection.
Asked by The New Humanitarian to summarise her motivation for working with a women’s response room, Nour replied succinctly: “I’m searching for a way to survive the ravages of war.”
*Most volunteers asked for their surnames not to be used given the security threats they face.