Women, Peace, and Security News: East Africa
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2008

Sudan: Rape is a way of life for Darfur's women
June 19, 2008 - (CNN) Sudan's Darfur crisis has exploded on many fronts -- violence, hunger, displacement and looting -- but United Nations peacekeepers say the biggest issue now affecting the region is the systematic rape of women and children. Thousands of women as young as 4 caught in the middle of the struggle between rebel forces and government-backed militias have become victims of rape, they say, with some aid groups claiming that it is being used as a weapon of ethnic cleansing.

Ethiopia: Ethiopia 'Abusing Ogaden People'
June 12, 2008 – (BBC News) Ethiopian troops are systematically ill-treating civilians in their counter-insurgency campaign in the Somali region, Human Rights Watch says. HRW cites evidence of extrajudicial detentions and killings, beatings and rapes in military custody, forced displacement of the rural population and the collective punishment of communities suspected of helping or sympathising with the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels.

Sudan: "The Entire Darfur Region Is a Crime Scene"
June 5, 2008 – (IPS) Rights advocacy groups are intensifying calls for the arrest of war crimes suspects as the U.N. Security Council discusses the situation in Darfur with the Sudanese authorities in Khartoum this week. The suspects, Ahmad Harun and Ali Kushayb, are charged with 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including acts of murder, persecution, torture, rape, and forcible displacement. There is particular concern about the victims of rape in Darfur, one of the crimes of which both suspects have been accused.

Kenya: But They Never Killed My Spirit
May 29, 2008 - (IPS) On Sep. 7 last year, as she walked to her home, parliamentary candidate Flora Igoki Terah was attacked and tortured by a gang of five men, sending a clear message that she should give up her run for parliament. It was not an isolated incident. The help desk at the Education Centre for Women in Democracy, a Nairobi-based non-governmental organisation, handled 153 cases of electoral violence against women candidates in the run up to the December 2007 elections and received 258 complaints of harassment and torture of women via email and phone.

SOMALIA: Amnesty report "scratches surface of atrocities"
May 7, 2008 - (IRIN) The Somali government denied claims by a rights group that its forces and their Ethiopian allies were committing atrocities against the civilian population - even as a civil society source said the report did not go far enough.

Ahead of Donor Conference, Sudanese Women Express Grave Concerns about Women’s Situation and Lack of Funding
May 5, 2008 – (UNIFEM) Ahead of the second Sudanese Donors’ Consortium, to be held tomorrow and on Wednesday in Oslo, Norway, Sudanese women today expressed grave concerns about the situation of women in Sudan and sent an urgent appeal to donors for resources to specifically address women’s needs.

Kenya: WOMEN'S DAY: Equal Pay in Theory, Not Always in Fact
March 7, 2008 - (IPS) On Mar. 8, a century ago, thousands took to the streets of New York in demonstrations aimed at improving life for women. Burning issues of the day included the need for better working conditions -- higher pay, a shorter work day -- and winning the right to vote.

KENYA: Sexual violence continues in IDP camps
March 4, 2008 - (PlusNews) Residents in a camp for displaced persons in Nakuru, in Rift Valley Province, western Kenya, were deeply shocked when a gang of men attacked and sexually assaulted five boys, but the health officials dealing with sexual violence during the recent political upheaval have had to become immune.

Kenya's "women in white" to circle peace talks
February 21, 2008 - (Reuters) Kenyan women wearing white clothes to symbolise peace vowed on Thursday to surround the venue of crisis talks until a solution is found to the east African country's worst turmoil since independence.

SUDAN: Too scared to tell - sexual violence in Darfur
February 12, 2008 - (PlusNews) People working in the vast humanitarian operation in Sudan's western region of Darfur are more than willing to talk about rebel attacks and the need for civilian protection, but when asked specifically about sexual violence against girls and women - reported to be rife - they fall silent.

Can a Kenyan Peace Agreement Stem Rape?
February 12, 2008 - (Alternet) While Kofi Annan gets closer to a peace agreement, the women of Kenya are still paying for the devastating rise in sexual violence in the post-electoral conflict.

Kenya: Top UN Official Spotlights Spike in Sexual Violence During Crisis
January 22, 2008 - (UN News Service) With reports of increasing sexual assaults against women displaced by Kenya's post-election violence, a senior United Nations official today called on the global community to recognize such crimes as an affront to basic human rights.

Kenya Violence Brings Increase in Rapes, Including Gang Rapes
January 18, 2008 - (VOA) The political violence and turmoil has taken its toll on women in Kenya. The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) says there’s been an increase in rapes, including gang rapes.

KENYA: Health workers grappling with conflict-related sexual violence
January 15, 2008 - (IRIN) As Kenya counts the human and material cost of the political violence, hospitals are reporting an increase in reported rapes during the immediate post-election period, spurring the government and health organisations to find ways to treat these cases as well as protect the displaced from further incidents of sexual violence.

Rapes spiral as Kenya crisis deepens
January 5, 2008 - (The Age) Hundreds of women and children, including boys as young as five, have been gang-raped in a wave of sexual violence that has swept Kenya in the aftermath of last week's disputed presidential election. As ethnic hatred mounts in a country teetering on the brink of catastrophe, disturbing reports are emerging of angry mobs adding rape to their arsenal of revenge.

KENYA: Rape on the rise in post-election violence
January 2, 2008 - (IRIN) Amid the violence that engulfed several residential areas of the Kenyan capital following the declaration of controversial results of the presidential elections, women in particular have been targetted, with at least one hospital reporting a rise in the number of rape victims seeking treatment.