Living with the threat of rape in Darfur

Aid workers say rape is widespread in Darfur, especially whenever the women venture out of the camps to find firewood to cook the food given by humanitarian agencies

The convoy of African Union trucks was driving up a hillside overlooking a small valley near Otash in South Darfur State, western Sudan, when the two women gathering firewood spotted the vehicles and instinctively took to their heels.

In response, the AU troops and civilian police, including a young Sudanese officer who had accompanied the patrol, ran after the women shouting greetings.

“We were scared,” Khadija Sebit Sulieman said. Still gripping the axe she had been using to cut wood, she added: “This is the place where the Arabs [militias] used to attack us.” Read more >>>