Women struggling to survive in the war-torn Sudanese city of Omdurman say they are being forced to have sex with soldiers in exchange for food, Ednews reports.

More than two dozen women who have been unable to flee fighting in Omdurman said that sexual intercourse with men from the Sudanese army was the only way they could access food or goods that they could sell to raise money to feed their families.

The women said that most of the assaults took place in the “factories area” of the city, where the most food in the city is available.

One victim said she had no choice but to have sex with soldiers to get food for her elderly parents and 18-year-old daughter.

“Both of my parents are too old and sick and I never let my daughter go out to look for food,” she said. “I went to the soldiers and that was the only way to get food – they were everywhere in the factories area.”

The woman said she was forced to have sex with soldiers at a meat-processing factory in May last year – not long after Sudan’s devastating civil war broke out between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces – then again at a warehouse storing fava beans this January.

Before the war broke out, the 37-year-old, who appeared pale and thin in interviews, said she had worked as a maid for families living in affluent parts of Omdurman but was too poor to have been able to flee the city and take her family to a safer part of the country when the conflict began.

The conflict in Sudan has left tens of thousands dead and displaced more than 10 million people, according to the United Nations. A recent UN-backed report said nearly 26 million people, or slightly more than half of the population, were facing high levels of “acute food insecurity”.