WOMEN say they have been raped and ransomed by fighters in Sudan’s ongoing war, it was reported today.

The United Nations calls sexual violence one of the “most defining features” of Sudan’s war, now in its fourth year. 

It says sexual assaults have soared since the war began and many women have been subject to sexual slavery and forced to pay ransoms for their release, sometimes up to $10,000 (about £7,300).

Associated Press met a number of women who said they were abducted, held as sex slaves and forced to buy their freedom. They were introduced by aid workers who said they were aware of what had happened. 

All three blamed the United Arab Emirates-backed paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that are battling the Egyptian and Saudi Arabian-supported Sudanese military.

One woman said she fled her home in el-Fasher in September, weeks before the besieged city in Darfur was captured by the RSF, an assault the UN said bore “hallmarks of genocide.”

Her husband, a soldier, had been killed. Her brother had been shot and badly wounded and needed care.

RSF fighters ambushed them on the road, she said. They separated out the women and children and searched the men for shoulder marks indicating they had carried a gun, a sign they were likely soldiers. 

Everyone was forced to strip, she said.

When the RSF tried to kill her brother, she told them to take her instead.

She said she was bound, beaten and thrown into a truck with four other women and teenage girls and driven to an abandoned village in the desert. Naked and hungry, they lay bound in a shelter, urinating on themselves.

For the next two days, she said she and the others were raped multiple times by different men. 

The captors would enter and choose who they wanted, untie them, assault them and bind them again.

“I was thinking about ending my life,” the woman said, wiping away tears.

On the second day, the men demanded about $1,500 (around £1,100) for her freedom. 

The captors eventually accepted about $700 (£515) for her release after she was forced, under torture, to contact friends for the money.

The UN and rights groups have accused all parties of sexual assault but they say the majority of the violence has been committed by the RSF.

The RSF did not immediately respond for comment.