KHARTOUM, Sudan: The United Nations says sexual violence has become one of the main features of the war in Sudan, which is now in its fourth year.

Cases of sexual assault have risen sharply since the fighting began.

Although the U.N. does not have exact numbers, it says many women have been forced into sexual slavery and made to pay large sums of money, sometimes up to US$10,000, to be released.

One woman said she was raped by her captors and left lying naked in her own urine. After two days, they gave her a phone and told her to call her family and friends to ask for money, or she would be killed. The 38-year-old said she screamed during the calls while her loved ones listened to her being tortured in a remote village in western Sudan.

Now safe in the capital, Khartoum, she looks at photos she took of her injured face and body after she was freed in September. She hopes they can be used as evidence to punish those responsible.

The Associated Press spoke to three women who said they were kidnapped, kept as sex slaves, and forced to pay for their freedom. Aid workers introduced them and said they were aware of their cases. However, AP could not independently confirm their stories in a country where talking about sexual assault is still very sensitive.

All three women blamed the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which are fighting Sudan's army. The U.N. and rights groups say all sides in the conflict have committed sexual violence, but most cases are linked to the RSF, especially in Khartoum, Darfur, and Gezira. The U.N. also says South Kordofan is becoming another dangerous area as the war spreads there.

RSF Refuses to Answer Questions

The RSF did not answer questions about these accusations.

The 38-year-old woman said she fled her home in el-Fasher in September, shortly before the RSF took control of the city. Her husband, who was a soldier, had been killed, and her brother was badly injured. She said RSF fighters stopped them on the road, separated women and children from men, and forced everyone to strip. They checked the men for marks that might show they had used guns.

When the fighters tried to kill her brother, she asked them to take her instead.

She said she was tied up, beaten, and taken with four other women and girls to an empty village in the desert. They were kept naked, hungry, and tied up, forced to urinate on themselves.

For two days, she said, different men repeatedly raped them. The attackers would choose a woman, untie her, assault her, and tie her up again.

She said she felt so hopeless that she thought about ending her life.

On the second day, the captors demanded about $1,500 for her release. They gave her a phone and told her to transfer all her money. She sent about $200 from her bank account. Then they forced her to contact people on Facebook. When her cousin sent money, the captors tortured her during the call to force him to send more.

She said the abuse went on for hours during these calls. In the end, they accepted about $700 and released her.

She worries about the women who cannot pay. According to activist Hala Alkarib, such women often remain trapped and later disappear.

Experts say the RSF has long kidnapped people for ransom, but it has become more common during the war. A U.S.-based group reported that ransom cases have increased by nearly 195 percent since the war began, with most carried out by RSF fighters.

Another woman said that even after her family paid about $1,250, she was not freed. She said one of the captors secretly helped her escape at night.

She had been taken from a market in Khartoum in 2024 and held for two weeks. During that time, she was forced to cook, clean, take care of animals, and sometimes bathe the fighters. She said she and other women were raped every night and still suffer from nightmares.

The third woman said she was kidnapped near Dilling in South Kordofan, held for nine days, raped once, and beaten. Her family paid for her release in September.