Women are 'raped with impunity' as world fails Darfur

With the global community failing to take decisive action in Sudan, it has emerged that armed militias in the Darfur region are continuing to rape women and girls with impunity.

The UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) adviser on violence and sexual exploitation, Pamela Shifman, said she had heard "dozens of harrowing accounts of sexual assaults", including numerous reports of gang-rapes, when she visited internally displaced persons (IDPs) at one camp and another settlement in North Darfur last week.

Stressing that greater political will from the Sudanese government, the African Union (AU) and the UN system is necessary to put a halt to the outrages, Ms Shifman said the sexual violence will not end until there is recognition that it is deliberate and not some accidental by-product of war.

“Rape is used as a weapon to terrorize individual women and girls, and also to terrorise their families and to terrorise entire communities. No woman or girl is safe,” she said.

The Unicef adviser said that every woman or girl she spoke to had either endured sexual assault herself, or knew of someone who had been attacked, particularly when they left the relative safety of their IDP camp or settlement to find firewood.

“They know this is a treacherous trip and they fear the trip. But they have absolutely no choice; they must go out,” she said, explaining many families fear that if the men were to seek firewood instead, the militias would kill them.

None of the women and girls knew of a single case where an attacker had been punished or brought to justice for his crimes, she added.

At least 1.45 million people are internally displaced within Darfur since Janjaweed militias began attacking villages last year. Another 200,000 people have fled to neighbouring Chad.

(gmcg/mb)