Duchess Sophie breaks down in tears after meeting with rape victims in Africa
Duchess Sophie could not hold back tears after she met with women who were raped in exchange for food and water in war-torn Sudan.
The Duchess of Edinburgh met with refugees on the border of war-torn Sudan and broke down after hearing the horrific stories of sexual violence that women there had faced.
Sophie Wessex wept after hearing the "devastating" stories from women who have been subjected to sexual violence and rape by soldiers who use this as a terror tactic in a brutal war.
To escape the atrocities, the women fled to neighbouring Chad, where Sophie spoke with them.
She hugged five of the survivors after they detailed how they had been raped in exchange for food and water and revealed their daughters had been through similar harrowing experiences.
With tears in her eyes, she said: "I daren't even describe to you what they've been doing to children. It's not just about the sexual violence, which is horrific because they're having to exchange food and water for sex, and if they don't they kill them.
"These women have no option but to leave. And even then they're lucky. If they can get away, because some of the villages and towns that they come from, they can't even leave their houses any more. If they leave their houses they get killed."
She told The Sun after meeting with a "silent" girl on the Sudanese border: "It's heartbreaking. You have no idea what they have been through. That little girl was so silent and it worried me because of what I've just heard now.
"It really worried me. Because I haven't shared with you some of what they told me in there, which was why I was quite wobbly when I came in.
"I can't share - I don't think you would even want to print it in your publications, to be honest with you. But what they do to the children is... I can't even use the words. So I can only assume that they are young.
"That little girl that we were talking to - now that I've spoken to them [the women] I worry what she has either encountered or what she has witnessed. Because what they have all witnessed is complete atrocity."
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One of the five women Sophie spoke with said she had seen bodies "piled like a wall" during her family's escape from Geneina - a city experiencing some of the worst atrocities of the war.
The refugee camp visited by the duchess is home to a staggering 230,000 people - the same as Portsmouth - and is located on a border crossing that facilitates the movement of vital aid to those in the midst of the war.
However, it may be closed by the Sudanese government next month as they believe weapons are being smuggled through it to the enemy Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
