In war-torn Sudan, women are being forced to have sex with soldiers to get food to feed their families, a report by The Guardian said. Over two dozen women who fled the Sudanese city of Omdurman said that having sex with soldiers was the only way they could access food or goods that they could sell to raise money to feed their families.

One woman who spoke to the Guardian said the assaults took place in factories across the the city where the food is stockpiled. “Both of my parents are too old and sick and I never let my daughter go out to look for food. I went to the soldiers and that was the only way to get food – they were everywhere in the factories area,” said a woman, who was forced to have sex with soldiers at a meat-processing factory in May last year.

The assaults reportedly began soon after a civil war broke out in the country which has seen the country’s army face off against paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Reports of rape by armed men emerged within days of the conflict starting on 15 April last year. 

The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people, with some estimates placing the death count as high as 150,000. The war has created the world’s worst displacement crisis — with more than 11 million uprooted and brought the country to the brink of famine.

Several women have come forward sharing harrowing tales of RSF fighters sexually abusing them in a systematic manner in areas under their control. The soldiers have also demanded sex in exchange for access to abandoned houses where it is still possible to loot items to sell in local markets, the women told the Guardian.

One woman said that she was allowed to take food, kitchen equipment and perfumes from empty houses after she had sex with soldiers. “What I went through is indescribable, I would not wish it on an enemy … I only did it because I wanted to feed my children,” she said.

Residents of the city claimed they see soldiers bringing women to abandoned houses where they were made to queue up as soldier picked the ones “they liked the look of”. “A lot of women come and queue outside our neighbourhood. I sometimes hear screaming but what can you do? Nothing,” one resident said.

Another woman told the Guardian that once she refused to have sex with the solider they tortured her and burned her legs. The 21-year-old said she had had sex with soldiers in exchange for being allowed to loot houses for food and goods, but went she refused to do so again the soldiers held her down and burned her legs.

A soldier, who denied ever assaulting a woman himself, said he had witnessed his colleagues. “It’s awful. The amount of the sins in this city can never been be forgiven,” he said.