Darfur/ Sudan

A peace agreement signed on 9 January 2005 by the Sudanese government and the Southern Sudanese rebel group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, (SPLM) ended 22 years of civil war in South Sudan. More than 2 million people were killed and 4 million driven out of their villages. Both sides are charged with serious abuses of human rights such as torture and rape.

However the South is not the only centre of conflict in Sudan, a country the size of Western Europe. Since February 2003 war has been raging in Darfur, in the North-West of Sudan. It is estimated that up to 400,000 people have been killed there so far; around 2 million are homeless. The civilian population is under attack from Arab mounted militiamen (Janjaweed) together with government troops. Foreign observers and human rights organisations report that sexualised violence is being used as a central strategy in waging the war.

The UN Security Council handed over the ‘Darfur case’ to the International Criminal Court in The Hague in April 2005. The ICC is now taking up investigations of those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

A further manifestation of structural violence against girls and women is the increasingly widespread practice of female genital mutilation. The international women´s organisation RAINBO estimates that 89 percent of women and girls in Sudan have become victims of genital mutilation.

• Amnesty international 2004: Darfur: Rape as a weapon of war: sexual violence and its consequences
• Human Rights Watch 2004: Letter to European Union Foreign Ministers and EU High Representative, Javier Solana
• Report of Medécins Sans Frontières about Sexual Violence in Darfur
• Pressemitteilung des Internationalen Strafgerichtshofs

medica mondiale funds in Darfur the project Support for Women in Refugee Camps in Darfur.