SUDAN: Living with the threat of rape in Darfur

(IRIN) - 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.”

The presence of the young Sudanese officer only added to the confusion. “Some of the ones who attacked wore a uniform just like his,” she said, pointing at him.

The women were just two of the millions of people in Darfur region who have endured harassment from armed militias, especially the Janjawid, ever since the conflict began in western Sudan in 2003. At the time, rebels claimed to be fighting against the marginalisation of the remote region. The Sudanese government responded by arming militias, who are now accused of turning their guns on civilians in the region. Read more >>>