Darfur in Crisis: Speaking Out On Violence Against Women in Darfur

In May 2004, an Amnesty International delegatation traveled to Chad to speak with refugees about violence perpetrated against women in the Darfur region of Sudan. The findings of these interviews are horrific: rape and other forms of sexual violence in Darfur are not just isolated consequences of the conflict or the result of a few undisciplined troops. Accounts relayed by Sudanese women demonstrate that rape and other forms of sexual violence are being used as a systematic weapon of war. Militia forces are using sexual violence to humiliate, punish, control, inflict fear and displace women and their communities. Even girls as young as eight-years-old have not been spared from such trauma, and have been subject to abductions, sexual slavery, torture and forced displacement. The suffering long surpasses the event itself. These women’s testimonies also illustrate the painful mental and physical after-effects of such suffering, including health problems, unwanted pregnancies, social stigmatization, and economic adversity.

In Their Words…

“They raped women; I saw many cases of Janjawid raping women and girls. They are happy when they rape. They sing when they rape and they tell that we are just slaves and that they can do with us how they wish.”
A., aged 37, from Mukjar camp

“A young single girl aged 17: M. was raped by six men in front of her house in front of her mother. M’s brother, S., was then tied up and thrown into fire.”
H., a 35 year old Fur man from Mukjar

“In July 2003, the Arabs raped M, 14, on the market square and threatened to shoot on the witnesses if they tried to intervene. They also raped other girls in the bush.”
S., a 28 year old Zaghawa woman from Habila region

“I was with another woman, Aziza, aged 18, who had her stomach slit on the night we were abducted. She was pregnant and was killed as they said: “it is the child of an enemy.”
A woman of Irenga ethnicity from the village of Bersila

“The attack took place at 8am on 29 February 2004 when soldiers arrived by car, camels and horses. The Janjawid were inside the houses and the soldiers outside. Some 15 women and girls who had not fled quickly enough were raped in different huts in the village. The Janjawid broke the limbs (arms or legs) of some women and girls to prevent them from escaping. The Janjawid remained in the village for six or seven days. After the rapes, the Janjawid looted the houses.”
N., a 30-year-old woman from Um Baru, Konoungou camp

“They took K.M., who is 12 years old in the open air. Her father was killed by the Janjawid in Um Baro… More than six people used her as a wife; she stayed with the Janjawid and the military more than 10 days. K, another woman who is married, aged 18, ran away but was captured by the Janjawid who slept with her in the open place, all of them slept with her. She is still with them. A, a teacher, told me that they broke her leg after raping her.”

“After six days some of the girls were released. But the others, as young as eight years old were kept there. Five to six men would rape us in rounds, one after the other for hours during six days, every night. My husband could not forgive me after this, he disowned me.”
S. from Silaya, near Kulbus

“On the first night I had to endure five men who raped me, the second night I was raped by three men. The third night I managed to escape with one of the others. I do not know what happened to the third women, the wife of I. who was with us.”
K., aged 23, from Ibek, Konoungou camp

“Women will not tell you easily if they have been raped. In our culture, it is a shame. Women hide this in their hearts so that men don’t hear about it.”