Five years Into Conflict, Rape and Sexual Violence Still Rife in Darfur

By Ted Townsend
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KHARTOUM, Sudan – Women and girls in the war-ravaged Darfur region are still suffering from widespread rape and sexual violence five years after the start of the conflict, according to a Human Rights Watch (“HRW”) report. The report alleges that neither the Sudanese government nor international peacekeepers are properly protecting women and girls from these brutal attacks, pointing out that girls as young as eleven have been subjected to rape. “The risk of sexual violence is a fact of everyday life for many women and girls in Darfur,” says the April seventh report, entitled ‘Five Years On – No Justice for Sexual Violence in Darfur.’ “It is a particularly disturbing feature of the ongoing armed conflict, a consequence of abusive state armed forces and non-state armed groups, and of the breakdown of law and order.”

In the report, HRW said it has documented case of rape and sexual abuse carried out by Sudanse Government soliders, the Khartoum-backed militia known as the “janjaweed”, and various rebel groups throughout the country. It also alleges rape outside of displaced-person camps. For its part, last month the Sudanese army unilaterally rejected a UN report accusing its soldiers of rape and other forms of violence, including looting. The govnerment has also stated it is committed to stopping sexual violence, but has effected no practice designed to curtail the violence.

HRW, however, contends that as the conflict has changed and become more complex, the pattern of sexual violence has changed. Attacks are more likely to occur in calm times in rural areas than in attacks on their villages. One eleven year old girl told of being raped by three men as she went to collect grass with her seven year old sister. A twelve year old described how a armed Arab man in uniform “lured her and her younger sister into a secluded area by pretending to help them find their lost donkey.” There, the man “did bad things to (her).”

The above examples are rare cases where women and girls have reported the assaults. In the majority of cases, said HRW, many are unreported. Most victims are too afraid to report attacks, for fear of retribution and because there has been no evidence that suggests authorities are willing to assist them. According to the report, police are usually unwilling or unable to act. Soldiers also are effectively immune from civil prosecution.

The report calls for bolstered security, and a stronger backing in the form of presidential decree that rape and other forms of sexual violence will be promptly investigated and prosecuted. The report also mandates that the government train police and prosecutors in “victim-sensitive” approaches to handling investigations. Finally, HRW suggests the government of Sudan deploy a number of experienced and high-ranking female officers in the patrols.

If no changes are made, “the victims of these horrific attacks have little or no hope of redress in Darfur’s current climate of impunity,” according to Georgette Gagnon, HRW Africa director. “By failing to prosecute the perpetrators, the government is giving them a license to rape.

For more information, please see:

SW Radio Africa – Human Rights Watch Calls On Government to End Sexual Violence in Darfur – 7 April 2008

BBC News  – Darfur women still face rape risk – 7 April 2008

Mail & Guardian – Rights group says sexual violence rife in Darfur – 7 April 2008

Human Rights Watch – Darfur: No Redress for Rape – 7 April 2008

Comments

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well done, guy