'More women raped in Darfur'

2006-08-23 22:17

Mohamed Osman

Khartoum - More than 200 women have been raped in one of Darfur's refugee camps during the past five weeks alone, a sign of the worsening humanitarian crisis in the violence-wracked Sudanese region, said an aid group on Wednesday.

The increased violence came as the United Nations security council discussed a draft resolution to replace an understaffed African Union peacekeeping force with a larger and more effective UN mission to restore peace in Darfur, where more than 200 000 people have been killed since 2003.

The number of rapes in Kalma camp - one of Darfur's largest with about 100 000 refugees - was one measure of the increased violence throughout the region, as was a rising number of people fleeing their homes and of attacks on aid workers, said international rescue committee (IRC), which collected the information.

Kurt Tjossem of the IRC said: "This is a massive spike in figures. We are used to hearing of two to four incidents of sexual assault a month in Kalma camp."

Women,children abducted for sex

The group did not specify who committed the rapes.

Refugees in the past have accused the pro-government janjaweed militias of harassing them.

The aid group's statement echoed a report issued by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan a day earlier that said there were thousands of documented cases of women and children abducted for forced labour or forced sex.

Annan said: "Grave violence against women in Darfur continues to worsen."

"Girls have been targeted in interethnic conflicts as a deliberate form of humiliation of a group, and as a means of ethnic cleansing."

Violence flared three years ago in Darfur when ethnic African tribes revolted against the Arab-led Sudanese government.

Khartoum is accused of having unleashed in response a paramilitary group known as the janjaweed that have been blamed for much of the atrocities.

Measuring the violence in the vast, arid Darfur region has long been notoriously difficult, with pro-government armed groups and rebel factions often barring access to international observers, and Khartoum providing scare information.

Humanitarian aid workers killed

International pressure has been mounting on Khartoum to let a large UN mission into the country to resolve the crisis.

On Wednesday, four US congressmen ended a trip to Sudan on a fact-finding mission, said the US embassy in Khartoum.

The delegation was led by Connecticut Republican Christopher Shays, the chairperson of the subcommittee on national security, said the embassy.

The IRC statement said more than 50 000 people have been made refugees in recent weeks, joining some two million people previously displaced by the conflict.

Last month alone, nine humanitarian aid workers were killed and 20 vehicles were hijacked in Darfur, said the New York-based IRC.

Sudan wants AU troops to remain in Darfur and be beefed up with the money that would be spent on a UN force.

The AUs mandate runs out on September 30, and AU officials have warned the mission could then have to leave Darfur if the international community does not provide more support.

- SAPA