Women, Peace, and Security News archive: East Africa
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2007 East Africa News Archive

Kenyan women bear brunt of election violence
December 21, 2007 - (Reuters) Frightened by slaughterhouse workers carrying butchers knives, Angela Waweru decided to withdraw her candidacy for a Kenyan civic seat on nomination day. Her male opponent had managed to force her out of the race.

SUDAN: Darfur attack "targeted women and children"
October 10, 2007 (IRIN) - The recent attack on Muhajiriya town in South Darfur, in which 45 people died and thousands fled their homes, mainly targeted women, children and the elderly, a rebel faction said.

Kenya: Women Demand Greater Say in ODM Decision Making
September 4, 2007 - (AllAfrica) The women in the Orange Democratic Movement have called on the party's hierarchy to formulate rules conducive for more women to venture into politics.

Violence Plagues Darfur Women Searching for Firewood and Fodder
August 30, 2007 - (UNFPA) The rains have come to South Darfur and bright patches of green occasionally dot the barren landscape. But in Manawashi the ground remains dry and parched.

UN accuses Sudan militia of mass abduction and rape
August 21, 2007 - (Reuters) The United Nations' human rights office on Tuesday accused forces allied with Sudan's government of mass abduction and rape of women and girls in Darfur, acts it said could constitute war crimes.

KENYA: More Women in Parliament, Hopefully - By Way of the Constitution
August 9, 2007 - (IPS) Kenya's parliament will soon debate a constitutional amendment bill to improve female representation in the legislature by creating 50 special seats for women. At present, only some eight percent of parliamentary posts in the East African country are occupied by women.

HYBRID DARFUR FORCE WILL HELP PROTECT LIVES OF WOMEN, SAYS UN INSTITUTE CHIEF
August 1, 2007 – (UN News) The newly authorized hybrid United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur can serve as a major step towards saving the lives of vulnerable women and girls in the violence-wracked Sudanese region, the head of a UN women’s institute said today.

Justice denied for Sudanese rape victims
June 28, 2007 - (afrol News) "Sudan's laws governing rape expose rape victims to further abuse, shield perpetrators from prosecution, limit the ability for survivors to receive medical services and generally deny any access to justice," according to a new analysis.

Women, children flee Darfur after attacks
June 1, 2007 - (AP) Hundreds of women and children fled by foot and on donkeys from Darfur to the neighboring Central African Republic after their town was attacked by planes and helicopters, the U.N. refugee agency said Friday.

Darfur women describe gang-rape horror
May 28, 2007 - (Associated Press) The seven women pooled money to rent a donkey and cart, then ventured out of the refugee camp to gather firewood, hoping to sell it for cash to feed their families. Instead, they say, in a wooded area just a few hours walk away, they were gang-raped, beaten and robbed.

Ethiopia: IGAD Calls for Means to Tackle Violence Against Women
May 15, 2007 - (The Daily Monitor) "It challenges us to put in place the right tools and monitoring mechanisms that will enable governments, NGOs, regional and international organizations to implement at different levels the existing instruments, protocols and agreements pertaining to gender violence," said Dr. Attalla Hamad Bashir, IGAD executive Director.

SUDAN-UGANDA: Frustration over LRA's refusal to free women and children
May 09, 2007 - (IRIN) The Ugandan government on Tuesday said the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) continued to hold thousands of abducted children and women, despite repeated pleas for their release from both the state and international organisations.

Ethiopia: Media Accused of 'Anti-Women Bias', Sensationalism Journalists Urged to Use Check List
April 19, 2007 – (The Daily Monitor) Gender insensitive and anti-women reporting on the part of the Ethiopian media has been found to be an insult to injury which is hurting the families and friends of victims of gender-based violence, the Ethiopian Media Women's Association complained on Tuesday.

Report: Sudan's young endure "unspeakable" abuse
April 19, 2007 - (Reuters) Children in Sudan are press-ganged, coerced to join armed groups, raped and used as forced labor or sex slaves, according to a new report.

Eritrea outlaws female circumcision
April 08, 2007 - (SomaliNet) The Eritrean government has with immediate effect banned female circumcision; A brief statement posted on the Eritrean government website on Thursday said anyone who requests, takes part in or promotes the practice faces a fine or jail sentence.

Ethiopia: Fighting Violence Against Women Imperative
April 07, 2007 - (The Ethiopian Herald) The Ministry of Information said exerting concerted efforts is imperative to fight violence against women. report by humanitarian groups.

Top UN rights official urges probes of sexual violence, disappearances in Darfur
April 06, 2007 – (UN News Centre) The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights today called for investigations into widespread sexual violence during attacks by Sudanese Government forces and allied militia in Darfur as well as the disappearance of over a dozen men allegedly at the hands of rebels there.

Women Risk Rape to Find Food on Front Lines of Darfur Civil War
April 04, 2007 - (Bloomberg) Khadija Mohamed and her 18-year-old niece, Mafagara, were riding a donkey back to their village in Sudan's Darfur region when three men carrying AK-47 rifles stopped them and tried to drag the young woman away.

Sudan:Fleeing the Janjaweed: a people brutalised and betrayed
March 24, 2007 - (The Independent) The Chadian desert is littered with camps where refugees from the Darfur crisis have fled to escape the Janjaweed. Jody Williams, the Nobel Peace Laureate, heard their stories.

Sudanese women to be stoned for adultery-Amnesty
March 20, 2007 - (Reuters) Two Sudanese women have been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery after a trial in which they had no lawyer and which used Arabic, not their first language, the rights group Amnesty International said.

Living with the threat of rape in Darfur
March 14, 2007 - (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.

Rape haunts women of Darfur
March 11, 2007 - (Reuters) The 25-year-old Darfuri woman was raped in front of her two young children, whose screams haunted her during an attack which she is too ashamed to tell her husband about.Despite a recent lull in fighting, rape continues in Darfur's conflict. The crime is so sensitive it is seldom reported by victims who fear retribution and social exclusion.

Sudan: Task Force to Address Sexual Abuse And Exploitation
February 21 2007- (IRIN) United Nations agencies and the southern Sudanese government are to establish a task force to monitor cases of sexual abuse and exploitation involving international staff, officials said.

ERITREA: Campaign against FGM ‘is working'
February 14, 2007-(IRIN) The Eritrean government and civil society have expressed optimism that efforts to combat female genital mutilation (FGM) were bearing fruit, saying the campaign against the practice was gaining support in rural villages where excision was most common.

Government of Sudan Reaffirms Its Commitment to Women's Rights and Justice
February 12, 2007-(UNIFEM) More than 70 participants attended the first day of the Gender Justice Workshop for South Sudan, being held on 12–14 February. The workshop aims to familiarize participants with the concept of gender justice in the context of Southern Sudan, as well as to create a space for women and men to discuss openly the most pressing gender justice issues, including the range of obstacles to gender justice facing women in Sudan.

Conscription of children, sexual abuse unabated in Darfur - UN
February 2 , 2007- (IRIN) Boys in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region are increasingly at risk of being recruited into armed groups, while sexual violence against girls is unabated, despite growing official awareness, a top United Nations envoy said on Thursday.

Ethiopian women rediscover their roles as peace builders
January 30, 2007 – (Oxfam) By raising awareness of the suffering produced by conflicts, women help find alternatives to violence. Tato Boru, 48 and the mother of five children, is a peacemaker. She leads the Moyale area women's peace council which Oxfam's local partner, the Research Center for Civic and Human Rights Education (RCCHE), helped to found.

Sudanese women acting to end sexual violence
January 25, 2007 – (ReliefWeb) The UN and the African Union must do more to insist that the Government of Sudan create an enabling environment to report, investigate and prosecute cases of violence against women. Militarisation and long-standing armed conflicts in many regions have deeply affected the daily lives of Sudanese women, most recently and tragically in Darfur.