MSF staff abused Sudanese refugees in sex-for-food scandal

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) admits its staff were accused of sexually abusing at least 59 Sudanese refugees who had fled the civil war in search of safety.

Young girls were exploited in some cases, and often food or jobs were offered in exchange for sex.

The offences were committed in eastern Chad and date back to 2024 – about a year into Sudan’s still-raging civil war.

The aid organisation also found patterns of exploitation that might amount to “sexual trafficking”, its own internal report suggested in July.

Some of the victims reportedly chose not to speak out about the abuse because they feared access to vital aid would be withheld in retaliation. Those who did report the abuse sometimes received no reply or support, MSF has admitted in its own report, while official complaints procedures were mostly ineffective.

“This misconduct represents a serious breach of MSF’s values and responsibilities, and we deeply regret the harm caused,” MSF said in response to reporters at AP who first investigated the misconduct.

Sudan plunged into civil war three years ago following a vicious power struggle between its army and a powerful paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

It is now widely recognised as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis – more than 11 million people have been forced from their homes, and 28 million face acute hunger.

Although there is no definitive death toll, the dead are thought to number at least 150,000 and could be as high as 400,000.

Mass sexual violence has been widely documented as a weapon of war in this conflict – men, women and children have been targeted including babies as young as a year old.

Humanitarian workers in multiple countries around the world have been accused of sexual exploitation in recent years, despite promises to end such abuses.

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