The Sudan-South Sudan border has long been a hotspot of instability, marked by protracted conflict, displacement, and socio-economic challenges. It is well evidenced that within this volatile context, women and girls have faced heightened vulnerability to Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), which is a pervasive and deeply entrenched issue. SGBV in this region is not only a consequence of ongoing insecurity but also a tool of oppression and control used by armed actors, exacerbated by systemic inequalities, weak governance, and limited access to justice and support systems. This briefing paper maps out some of the patterns of SGBV within the context of repeated displacement and bi-directional cross-border displacement between Sudan and South Sudan.
This policy brief is supplemental to the research paper ‘‘This caused our journey’: the relationship between sexual and gender-based violence and cross-border Sudan to South Sudan migration‘, published in the journal Conflict and Health.