UNIFEM WOMEN, WAR AND PEACE WEB PORTAL: SUDAN

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2007

UN ACCUSES SUDANESE MILITARY, ALLIED MILITIAS OF POSSIBLE WAR CRIMES
August 21, 2007 - (UN News) The Sudanese military and allied armed groups abducted women and girls and kept many as sex slaves for a month after an attack on villages in Darfur near the end of last year, the United Nations human rights office reported today, saying the abuses may constitute war crimes before the International Criminal Court (ICC) and naming individuals who could be held responsible.

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.

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.

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.

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.

2006

Women demand end to Darfur rapes
December 10, 2006 - (BBC News) International stateswomen have made a joint call for an end to rape and sexual violence in Sudan's conflict-torn region of Darfur.Peacekeepers must be sent to protect women there, the group said in a letter published by newspapers worldwide. It says rape is being used "on a daily basis" as a weapon of war in Darfur. Signatories include former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and the Irish former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson.

Sudanese women mobilize for peace
November 8, 2006 – (Hunt Alternatives Fund) Women throughout Sudan are crossing party and regional lines to raise their collective voice for a more peaceful and secure Sudan. As the second anniversary of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) approaches, Sudan and its international partners are evaluating progress toward implementing that landmark accord. From November 8 through 12, The Initiative for Inclusive Security will convene some of Sudan’s most distinguished women leaders, including members of the Government of National Unity (GNU), Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS), and civil society leaders.

No Justice for Darfur Rape Victims
October 25, 2006 - (IWPR) Whenever I have taken a camera into one of the many camps for refugees in Darfur, the children have immediately arranged themselves into a group. They want to be in the picture. And they insist on seeing the digital image. They smile and laugh while they point themselves out. At first glance, the burgeoning camps always seem happy places because of the uninhibited excitement of the children - that is if you ignore the tattered clothes and the reports from aid agencies, which paint a bleak picture. For the truth is that the settlements - known in international bureaucratic jargon as camps for Internally Displaced Persons - are places, once you move beyond the children's cheery welcomes, where human suffering can be smelled, seen and touched. And women and girls seem to bear the brunt of the suffering.

UN Reports Sharp Rise in Violence Against Women, Girls in Darfur
October 9, 2006 - (VOA) The United Nations says sexual violence against women and girls in Sudan's troubled Darfur region has soared in recent months, along with an overall deterioration of security. A coalition of U.N. agencies says the alarming increase in violent attacks against women and children in Darfur has risen ever since the signing of a peace accord between the Khartoum government and one rebel group earlier this year.

Rape risk spirals for Darfur women
October 4, 2006 - (BBC News) Kutum Hawa was raped in broad daylight, the way it often happens here in northern Darfur. Clutching a baby to her breast, she relived her ordeal from Kassab camp which is sanctuary to more than 20,000 people displaced by Darfur's bloody conflict.

A blind eye to genocide
September 17, 2006 - (The Sunday Times) Here is an inconvenient fact about Africa: our genocides tend to happen away from television cameras. Almost 1m people were killed in Rwanda in 1994; 2m died in southern Sudan in the past two decades; and 4m people in the Democratic Republic of Congo have died since 1997. The totals are staggering, and hardly a column inch or minute of airtime have marked them.

For Darfur Women, Survival Means Leaving Camp, Risking Rape
September 15, 2006 - (The Washington Post) The tall, light-skinned man reeking of sweat and cigarettes often gallops his horse right into the nightmares of Darelsalam Ahmed Eisa, 18.

There's Quiet But No Peace
September 13, 2006 - (Alertnet) Four months since the signing of the peace agreement, security is yet to be established. In El Neem, a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) on the outskirts of El Daein town, in the east of South Darfur state, Sudan, the women seeking refuge say they are not safe.

Annan Warns Darfur is Heading for Disaster Unless UN Peacekeepers Move in
September 13, 2006 - (UN News Service) Darfur is headed for a disaster unless the Sudanese Government changes its mind and allows a force of United Nations peacekeepers to take over from the existing African Union (AU) operation in the strife-torn region, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today.

'More women raped in Darfur'
August 23, 2006 – (News24) 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.

Attack and Rape of 17 Women outside Kalma IDP Camp
July 26, 2006 (Sudan Organisation Against Torture) On 24 July 2006, approximately 25 armed militias, some in army uniform attacked twenty women outside Kalma internally displaced camp in Nyala, Southern Darfur.

AU in Darfur lacks women, rape training - Amnesty
July 18, 2006 —(Reuters) Darfur peacekeepers should include more women and should be trained in women’s rights to help reduce widespread rape and sexual slavery, rights group Amnesty International said on Tuesday.

Sudan: Security Council Must Secure Consent for U.N. Force
June 3, 2006 –(Human Rights Watch) The U.N. Security Council must promptly secure Sudan’s consent for a U.N. force in Darfur with a mandate to ensure the protection of civilians, Human Rights Watch said today. A Security Council delegation is scheduled to arrive in Khartoum on June 5 and visit displaced persons camps in Darfur, before continuing to Chad.

Sudan undecided on UN troops in Darfur
May 26, 2006 -(Reuters) Sudan has yet to decide whether to allow U.N. peacekeeping troops into Darfur, but will let a technical team visit the region to investigate a United Nations role, presidential advisor Mustafa Osman Ismail said on Friday.

SUDAN: Government allows UN to assess proposed Darfur mission
May 26, 2006 -(IRIN) A joint United Nations-African Union assessment team will head to Sudan’s troubled Darfur region to determine how to strengthen the current AU mission in Sudan (AMIS) and to lay the groundwork for a possible transition to a UN peacekeeping force, a UN diplomat said.

International NGOs call for strong force in Darfur: Joint letter to the U.N. Security Council
May 25, 2006 -(Human Rights Watch) On April 28, 2006, the United Nations Security Council adopted resolution 1674 on the protection of civilians in armed conflict. Resolution 1674 reaffirms the international responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. For civilians around the world, resolution 1674 has the potential to be one of the most significant measures taken by the Security Council in decades to provide them with protection, but only if it is transformed from rhetoric into action.

U.N.-Sudan talks fail as Darfur deadline passes
May 24, 2006 -(Reuters) Top United Nations officials failed to gain Sudan's agreement to allow a technical team to plan the deployment of U.N. troops to the violent Darfur region as a Security Council deadline expired on Wednesday.

Upsurge of violence harming civilians in southern Sudan
May 23, 2006 -(Medecins Sans Frontieres - International Press Release) "We are concerned about the growing number of violent incidents," says MSF co-ordinator Cristoph Hippchen. "This means humanitarian assistance to the people of Upper Nile and Jonglei, already far below what is needed, will be even less now."

Sudan failing to honour pledges on human rights-UN
May 23, 2006 (Reuters) - Sudan is failing to honour pledges on human rights, with rape continuing in Darfur, rights' activists facing harassment and officials enjoying impunity from prosecution, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Annan says Sudan prevents aid from reaching Darfur
May 23, 2006 -(Reuters) U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned the Sudan government that its restrictions on vital supplies and relief workers distributing them in Darfur constituted a violation of international humanitarian law.

UN envoy pushes Sudan peace force
May 23, 2006 -(BBC News) A senior United Nations envoy has gone to Sudan, as a report condemns the government for its treatment of civilians in the western Darfur region.

Canada promises aid but no more troops for Darfur
May 23, 2006 -(Reuters) Canada promised more financial aid on Tuesday for the troubled Sudanese region of Darfur but stopped short of boosting its small military contingent.

Sudan denies violation of Darfur truce
May 22, 2006 -(Reuters) Sudan on Monday denied Darfur rebel reports its troops attacked their camps in violation of a peace agreement signed this month to end the conflict which has killed tens of thousands of people.

Reduction of food aid to displaced persons in Darfur, Sudan - MSF calls on states to take emergency action to prevent a nutritional disaster
May 22, 2006 -(MSF Press Release) Over the last year, temporary breakdowns in the food distribution system have always led to significant increases in the number of cases of severe malnutrition treated in MSF's health centers.

Sudan welcomes UN officials sent for talks on Darfur force – UN mission
May 22, 2006 -(UN News) The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) said the country’s Government welcomed the upcoming visit of two UN envoys, who are headed to Khartoum for talks on a planned UN force to take over from the African Union operation following a peace agreement earlier this month aimed at ending fighting in the violence-wracked Darfur region.

Sudan appears to ease opposition to UN Darfur force
May 18, 2006 -(Reuters) Sudan on Thursday appeared to ease its opposition to a U.N. force in its violent Darfur region saying high-level talks with the United Nations were starting which would open a "new window" in relations.

Nations asked for gear, troops
May 18, 2006 -(THE WASHINGTON TIMES) The head of the United Nations peacekeeping arm said yesterday that he has begun contacting nations to field and equip a major deployment in Sudan's troubled Darfur region but said the mission will need clear support from Sudan's government if it is to succeed.

Security Council unanimously backs Darfur pact
MAY 17, 2006 -(International Herald Tribune) The UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday calling for strict observance of a new peace accord in Darfur and an acceleration of arrangements for a United Nations peacekeeping force to replace the strapped African Union force now there.

Darfur rebel leader rejects sanctions threat
May 16, 2006 -(Reuters) A rebel leader from Sudan's Darfur region on Tuesday rejected an African Union threat to impose sanctions on him if he did not sign a peace deal by May 31 to end fighting that has killed tens of thousands of people.

UN moves on several fronts to reinforce Darfur peace accord
May 15, 2006 -(UN News) United Nations officials mobilized today to press for a robust peacekeeping force and a speedy disbursement of humanitarian funds to back up a peace accord signed 10 days ago between the Sudanese Government and a major rebel group in the western Darfur region of Africa’s largest country.

UN's Egeland: Abuja pact only hope for Darfur
May 15, 2006 -(Reuters) The Darfur peace deal signed in Abuja last week is the only hope to end the conflict in Sudan's vast west and if it is not enforced the region will spin out of control, the top U.N. humanitarian official said on Monday.

Chronology of Darfur conflict, peace efforts
May 15, 2006 -(Reuters) The African Union said on Monday two rebel factions from Sudan's Darfur region would have an extra two weeks until the end of May to sign a peace agreement they have so far failed to endorse.

FACTBOX-Key facts about Darfur
May 15, 2006 -(Reuters) The African Union said on Monday that two rebel factions from Sudan's Darfur region would have an extra two weeks until the end of May to sign a peace agreement they have so far failed to endorse.

HORN OF AFRICA: Sudan, Ethiopia criticised over violations
May 12, 2006 -(IRIN) The head of a United Nations human rights agency called Sudan’s efforts to improve its rights record “paper initiatives” following her visit to the troubled western region of Darfur.

Darfur rebel faction sees progress in peace talks
May 12, 2006 -(Reuters) A rebel faction from Sudan's Darfur region, under intense pressure to join a peace agreement, said on Friday its overture to the government had received a positive response and a breakthrough looked possible.

SUDAN: Annan urges expeditious deployment of a UN force in Darfur
May 10, 2006 -(IRIN) United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan pledged to speed up planning for the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force to the troubled Darfur region of western Sudan, comparing the crisis to those faced in Bosnia, Rwanda and Somalia.

Darfur Peace Agreement Requires Continued US Engagement to Succeed
May 9, 2006 -(Refugees International Press Release) Refugees International welcomes the signature of the Darfur Peace Agreement in Abuja on May 5, 2006, and commends the US government for its substantial commitment, especially through the presence and engagement of Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, to ensure that an agreement was reached.

SUDAN: Egeland urges Darfur combatants to build on peace pact
May 9, 2006 -(IRIN) United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland on Tuesday urged the Sudanese government and insurgents in the country's strife-torn Darfur to take advantage of the peace deal signed last week between Khartoum and a rebel group to bring the conflict in the region to an end.

SUDAN: Egeland cuts short visit to displaced camp after fracas
May 8, 2006 -(IRIN) United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland was forced to curtail his visit to a camp for internally displaced persons in Sudan's restive western region of Darfur on Monday when an initially peaceful demonstration to show support for a planned deployment of a UN peacekeeping force turned rowdy.

UN joins inquiry into reported sex abuse by African Union troops in Darfur
May 5, 2006 -(UN News) Following recent media reports of alleged sexual violence, including rape and child abuse, by African Union (AU) forces monitoring the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) will participate in the AU’s newly established Committee of Inquiry.

INTERVIEW-Violence against Darfur women worsens - rights chief
May 4, 2006 -(Reuters) Sexual violence against women in Darfur is worsening amid a general deterioration in security and human rights in Sudan's vast west, the top U.N. human rights official said after touring the region.

Abortion care needs in Darfur and ChaD
May 3, 2006 -(Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford University) Given the prevalence of sexual and gender-based violence in Darfur, why are safe abortion services and treatment of complications resulting from unsafe abortions or miscarriages not provided at all refugee/ IDP health facilities?

Fuel-efficient stoves: Empowering refugee women in Darfur
May 1, 2006 -(Cooperative Housing Foundation International) By the end of 2005, approximately 2.2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) were living in dense camps scattered across arid areas of Darfur, Sudan, areas that have already low fuelwood productivity. In addition, inefficient harvesting of fuelwood has increasingly depleted the area's sources of wood and fuel. As a result, many women and children are left to leave the safety of their camps to fetch fuelwood from farther and farther away, imposing great risk upon themselves.

Update of the Four Girls Who Faced Hanging
April 27, 2006 -(World Organization Against Torture Press Release) The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT), a member of the OMCT network, of the release of Ms. Fayza Ismail Abaker (16), Ms. Houda Ismail Abdel Rahman (17) and Ms. Zahra Adam Abdella (17) on 5 April 2006.

Refugee Voices: Abduction and Displacement in Sudan
April 20, 2006 -(Refugees International) While there is “peace” in south Sudan since the signing of the comprehensive peace agreement (CPA) that ended the 22-year North-South war, life still remains unpredictable and difficult for many Sudanese. Particularly vulnerable are women and their children.

Statement on the allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by African Union
April 7, 2006 -(Refugees International News) Refugees International is gravely concerned, but not surprised, to hear of reports of sexual exploitation and abuse by African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, Sudan. The allegations of soldiers paying for sex, women becoming pregnant by peacekeepers, and the rape of young girls are extremely disturbing – all the more so because the African Union had been well aware that these events might happen.

AU investigating rape charges against Darfur force
April 5, 2006 -(Reuters) The African Union is investigating allegations of rape and child abuse levelled against its peace-monitoring forces in the violent Darfur region, it said in a statement.

Women's Commission Aims to Combat Violence Against Women in Refugee Camps
14 March 2006 -(VOA News) The non-profit Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children has introduced a series of recommendations to significantly reduce incidents of violence against women and girls in areas of conflict.

Sudan: Helping Reduce Women's Vulnerability
March 3, 2006 -(UN Integrated Regional Information Networks) During a meeting on violence against women in Kabkabiya town, North Darfur, participants cannot agree whether a person who falls pregnant after being raped should be charged with adultery.

Women in Darfur Look to ICC
February 28, 2006 -(Institute for War & Peace Reporting) If you are a woman in the Darfur region of Sudan who has been raped and you want to lay a charge, it is virtually certain that legal officers will automatically reduce your allegation to one of assault. If you persevere with your rape accusation, you will be told to do the impossible and provide four male witnesses to support your charge.

Refugee Crisis Grows as Darfur War Crosses a Border
February 28, 2006.-(New York Times). The chaos in Darfur, the war-ravaged region in Sudan where more than 200,000 civilians have been killed, has spread across the border into Chad, deepening one of the world's worst refugee crises.Arab gunmen from Darfur have pushed across the desert and entered Chad, stealing cattle, burning crops and killing anyone who resists. The lawlessness has driven at least 20,000 Chadians from their homes, making them refugees in their own country.

The rape of Darfur
January 18, 2006 -(Guardian Unlimited) Now that most of the black African villages in Darfur have been destroyed, sexual violence against women and children is being used to break the will of the population that remains, says Glenys Kinnock.

2005

Women Boost Darfur Talks
December 22, 2005 – (IPS News) The 55-year-old stout woman walks with a noticeable limp. The disability is not inborn, but one caused by a bullet that pierced right through her right leg when she was fighting government-backed Arab militias. The militias, called janjaweed, or men on horseback, have attacked villages belonging to dark-skinned Africans like Omar's. Human rights groups have accused the militias of torching huts, destroying crops, raping women, stealing cattle and slaughtering those whose skin colour does not resemble theirs.

Dealing with gender violence through music
December 19, 2005 - (IRIN) Well-known Sudanese singers and actors have an important role to play in teaching internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the western Sudanese region of Darfur about the harmful consequences of gender-based violence (GBV), aid workers say. "As a poet, music composer and singer, I profoundly know influence of arts upon human beings and that human life is not sustained by bread alone," said Abdel Karim el Kabli, an internationally renowned Sudanese singer, after a recent concert in Otash IDP camp near Nyala, the capital of South Darfur.

Health Care Oasis Develops for Women in Sudan
December 11, 2005 - (WOMENSENEWS) Here among the dozen or so red brick buildings spread across 20 acres in the ancient city of Omdurman--the northern third of Sudan's capital of Khartoum--sits the remnants of a dream that is beginning to reawaken after decades of war. Nearly 100 years ago, Sheikh Babiker Badri, Sudan's first head of the Department of Education, had a dream to educate women as men were educated.

Gender-based violence still rampant in Darfur, say aid agencies
December 5, 2005 - (IRIN) Humanitarian agencies have called for increased efforts to prevent sexual and gender-based violence (GBV) in war-torn western Sudan, saying such acts against women violate their human rights.

Darfur women fighters negotiate for first time
December 2, 2005 - (Reuters) Darfuri rebel commander Mariam Abdallah saw her husband murdered in front of her and took to arms dealing to look after the 15 children in her care before joining a revolt to fight the government she says is racist.

Peace Force In Darfur Faces Major Challenges: African Troops Stymied By Shortages, Mission
November 21, 2005 - (Washington Post Foreign Service) Under the blazing sun, a squad of African Union peacekeepers guarded a group of women as they gathered yams in a field outside the charred remains of this village in Sudan's Darfur region, making sure they were not followed or assaulted by marauding gunmen.

Women decry impunity for rape in Darfur
November 17, 2005 - (Reuters) A culture of impunity for rape in Sudan's Darfur region means women like Mariam, assaulted and left for dead, say they don't even bother to report the attacks to police, aid workers and officials said.

No Power to Protect: The African Union Mission in Sudan No Power to Protect
November 9, 2005 - (Refugees International) The African Union Mission in Sudan argues that the African Union Mission in Sudan will be unable to carry out its job in Darfur unless the U.S. and the UN take active measures to provide support. AMIS does not have the resources or ability ot carry out its job of monitoring a ceasefire that is widely and regularly violated by all sides. Refugees International argues that the U.S. and UN must push the government of Sudan to accept a stronger mandate that allows AMIS to pro-actively protect civilians in Darfur. In addition, the U.S. and UN must provide more funding, weapons and equipment and in the long-term, work to successfully transition the mission from the African Union to the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

SUDAN: Women tea sellers struggle against odds
October 25, 2005 - (IRIN) On a quiet street in Emina el Bahri, a small town just 10 km from the Sudanese capital Khartoum, Sada Adam sits on the porch of a small shop and sells cups of tea to the locals. After a long working day, she will have made only US $4 with which she will attempt to feed her four children. "This life is very difficult. But what can I do? There is no other way for me to make money," said Adam.

UN decries ’very poor’ state of Sudanese women
Sept 21, 2005 (Sudan Tribune) — A senior official of the United Nations said that the situation of women and girls in Sudan, especially in camps for displaced persons and in the south, remains "very poor" and requires urgent action. Rachel Mayanja, UN secretary-general Special Advisor on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women, told a press briefing here Wednesday that women in the country lacked economic opportunities, access to clean water, education and healthcare.

MORE WOMEN NEEDED AT PEACE TALKS AND IN GOVERNMENT
September 10, 2005- (IPS) A meeting in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi has highlighted the importance of giving Sudanese women a greater voice in their country's political affairs, if Sudan is to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Darfur's Babies of Rape Are on Trial From Birth
February 11, 2005 - (NYT) Fatouma spends her days under the plastic tarp covering her tent, seated on a straw mat, staring at the squirming creature in her arms.

Girls From Sudan's War Now Fight to Learn: Effects of 21-Year Conflict, Patriarchal Tradition Hurt Chance at School
February 4, 2005 (Washington Post) At 14, Mary Achok Marial knows how to handle an AK-47 assault rifle, but she can barely read. She knows how to forage for food to survive, but when she needs to buy salt in the market, she has trouble doing the math. "I need education," said the barefoot girl under the mango tree, tough and muscular from her years with a rebel group. Her left ankle is still scarred from a bullet wound.

Civilians Bear Brunt of the Continuing Violence in Darfur
January 22, 2005 - (NY Times) The sounds of terror arrived with agonizing certainty - the whisper of camel hoofs on desert sand, the clap of gunfire, the crackle of a thatched roof set aflame.

Southern Sudan Peace Plan Ignites Women's Hopes
January 13, 2005 (WOMENSENEWS) Thousands of southern Sudanese women sang, ululated and danced to African drumbeats in a football stadium here last weekend as a power-sharing and ceasefire agreement was signed between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, the southern rebel group. The agreement--which spells out the terms by which the north and south share power and wealth--ends a 21-year conflict between an Arab-Muslim government based in the north and southern Christians and Animists. The conflict claimed an estimated 2 million lives and displaced 5 million more.

Peace Deal Signals a New Beginning for Women in Sudan
January 12, 2005 - (African Woman and Child Feature Service - Nairobi)) The signing of the comprehensive peace agreement in Kenya last week by the Sudanese Government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) marks the culmination of a long journey for the women of Southern Sudan.

Sudan's women hope for peace, divided over sharia
January 7, 2005 - (Reuters) Sudanese women have remained conservative, covered and mostly out of power under the Islamist government which overthrew a short-lived democracy in a bloodless military coup some 15 years ago.

2004

Darfur displaced camp rife with violence
December 17, 2004 - (Reuters) Zeinab Daoud went out to fetch firewood with five other girls as usual but this day was different. Two men on camels charged the group, separated her and then her ordeal began. Daoud, 20, sat uncomfortably on a chair knocking her bony knees together in the Kalma displaced camp in Sudan's Darfur region. "They grabbed me and beat me and then.." she stammered, surrounded by her family and onlookers.

Violence against women / Child concern rape/Ill-treatment
December 9, 2004 – (OMCT) The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Sudan Organisation against Torture (SOAT), a member of the OMCT network, of the attack, beating and rape of female internally displaced persons (IDPs) near the Deraij camp, 4 km east of Nyala, Southern Darfur State on 30 November 2004 and 2 December 2004.

Rape victims, babies face future labeled as outcasts
December 07, 2004 – (Miami Herald) Pro-government Arab militias have raped countless black African women in Sudan . Now both mothers and babies are shunned by a society where rape is a source of shame.

Darfur families pledge to care for rape babies
December 5, 2004 – (The Observer) The gunmen made Mohammed Aadam lie with his face in the dirt while his sister was being raped. He had been sitting in his hut that morning, playing cards with friends, when the Janjaweed attacked.

Sudan governor accuses Darfur rebels of rape and pillage
December 5, 2004 - (AFP) A top official in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region accused rebels of attacking villages and raping women in what he said was a new violation of a fragile ceasefire, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Rape, fighting continue in Sudan's Darfur region despite accords
December 3, 2004 – (UN News) Despite agreements signed between Sudan's Government and rebels in the country's Darfur region, recent reports of sexual violence and rape persist, contributing to a tremendous sense of insecurity among internally displaced persons (IDPs), the United Nations human rights agency said today.

Helping refugee women face up to HIV/AIDS
December 1, 2004 - (UNHCR) There's not much open talk of sex among the Dinka people of Sudan. "Even when I get married, my mother won't tell me what to expect on my wedding night," says one young woman.

War and rape in Darfur
November 24, 2004 – (IHT) It's a perennial problem. War occurs. Women are raped. Reporters flood the war zone looking for raped women. War subsides. The international community and the journalists lose interest in women's issues. Women continue to be raped. No one cares.

Towards effective role for Sudanese women in the implementation of peace
Nov 21, 2004 – (Sudan Tribune) The US-based Women Waging Peace Organization (WWP) issued an important document on the WWP peace recommendations for Sudan following a special meeting with 16 Sudanese women peace activists in Washington DC (October 5-18, 2004).

"If we collect firewood, we will be attacked"
November 17, 2004 - (Relief Web) Huddled with other women Alawehah speaks of the fear they live in every day. Already fleeing the violence of attacks by the Janjaweed, women now experience violence and intimidation in their place of refuge.

Women waging peace in Sudan
November 9, 2004 - (SojoNet) Sojourners spoke with Maha Sheriff of Darfur Women Solidarity, and Priscilla Joseph Kuch, who works with Southern Sudanese refugees near Khartoum, at a recent gathering of Sudanese women peace builders in Washington, D.C. The event was part of an advocacy and consultation series organized by Women Waging Peace.

Sudanese Rape Victims Find Justice Blind to Plight
November 8, 2004 - (Washington Post) The breeze ruffled Katuma Abdullah Adam's green scarf as the sheik and his helpers slowly poured water over her head. Once, twice, three times they repeated the ritual as the pregnant 15-year-old wept in shame. "You can now enter paradise," the sheik said, ushering Katuma inside a dark hut so her swollen body could also be washed, along with her nose and mouth, as a symbolic cleansing of the sin she had suffered.

Violence against women in Darfur
November 5, 2004 - (Refugees International) The crisis in the remote western Sudan province, Darfur, has threatened several million people with death and displacement. The Janjaweed militia, which has acted with the support of the Government of Sudan, targets civilians, a clear violation of international humanitarian law.

For Raped Women in Darfur, Access to Reproductive Health Services Limited
October 26, 2004 - (Refugees International) Janjaweed militias and government police continue to attack and rape women in Darfur. But the few clinics that do have services for rape survivors are not seeing recent cases because women are unable and unwilling to use health services. While clinics are packed with patients seeing treatment of malaria or respiratory illnesses, very few women are coming in for medical treatment after being raped.

Attacks on Women in West Sudan Draw an Outcry
October 26, 2004 - (New York Times) - Even with the eyes of the world on this burned-out swath of western Sudan, threats of oil sanctions against the government and the trickle of African Union monitors into the countryside, one brutality has apparently continued undeterred: violence against Darfur's women.

SUDAN: UN expert speaks out on rape in Darfur
October 20, 2004 (IRIN- Nairobi) - Sexual violence and rape of women and girls in the western Sudanese region of Darfur should be considered a war crime, Pamela Shifman, a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) adviser on violence and sexual exploitation, was reported as saying on Tuesday.

Sudan: Security Forces Attacking Women Seeking Firewood
October 13, 2004 - (refugeesinternational.org) This story is typical of the harassment and lack of protection that women in North Darfur are facing. All of the women that we spoke to in Abushouk complained about police intimidation of women. Since the Government of Sudan has increased the police forces in North Darfur to "protect" the people against the Janjaweed militia, the incidence of sexual violence against women perpetrated by the police and the army has risen. Rather than protecting them, there are reports that police are in league with the Janjaweed and have recruited many Janjaweed into their ranks.

Special Rapporteur on violence against women visiting Sudan
September 27, 2004 - (UN Information Service) - Yakin Ertürk, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, issued the following statement today...

Sudan in denial over Darfur rapes - U.N. official
September 25, 2004 - (Reuters) Sudan is in denial about the extent of rape in refugee camps in its traumatised Darfur region where fear and distrust of the government is pervasive, the United Nations' top human rights official said on Saturday.

Photo Album : PICTURES-Women and children suffer in Darfur
September 24, 2004 -(Reuters - AlertNet) The United Nations estimates up to 50,000 people have died in the conflict in Darfur and more than a million have been forced to flee their homes.

REFUGEES INTERNATIONAL Mission to Darfur, Sudan to Focus on Gender-Based Violence
September 17, 2004 -(RI) RI will be conducting its second assessment mission to Darfur from September 20 to mid-October to focus on gender-based violence against Sudanese women and to examine what steps have been taken to protect and empower local women. Human Rights Advocate Mamie Mutchler and Gender Advocate Sarah Martin will gather testimony from displaced women in Darfur in order to understand what communities are doing to support rape survivors and to improve protection for women and children. The advocates will also compare the needs of women and children for protection and the actual capability of community groups, the Government of Sudan, African Union ceasefire monitors and international agencies to provide it.

In Sudan, Rape's Lasting Hurt
September 15, 2004 - (LA Times) She has been in the world for 18 days and already her life is tainted. Curled naked under a blanket close to her mother, Nashwa is too young to know shame, the emotion that will be like a shadow to her.

WOMEN'S COMMISSION APPLAUDS U.S. DECLARATION OF GENOCIDE IN DARFUR; WORLD MUST DO MORE TO PROTECT REFUGEES AND THE DISPLACED
September 10, 2004 – (WCRWC) The Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children welcomes the United States' decision to declare genocide in Darfur and urges that the world provide adequate funding to help the 1.2 million Darfurians displaced from their homes, as well as the nearly 200,000 refugees in eastern Chad. Funding must include care and treatment for survivors of the widespread and systematic rape of women and girls by the Arab militia, the Janjaweed, as well as education for children and young people.

MY DARFUR STORY: PICTURES OF KALTOOM'S LIFE SINCE FLEEING THE JANJAWEED MILITIA
September 2004 – (BBC- In Pictures series) In the latest BBC photo series on people's daily lives, Kaltoom Hamid Aseel tells of her life in Kalma refugee camp in Darfur in western Sudan.

The Lost Girls of Sudan Try to Tell Their Story
August 31, 2004 - (Voice Of America) Sudan has been in the headlines recently, as the world responds to the violence and humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region. Ten years ago, another conflict in Sudan was in the news, as thousands of children arrived in refugee camps, fleeing a then-decade old civil war between the Arab-dominated government in the north and the Christian and animist south.

RAPE FEAR TRAPS WOMEN IN 'CONCENTRATION CAMP'
August 24, 2004 - (Globe and Mail) As refugee camps go, Sisi actually has a little something to recommend it. The camp, home to about 7,000 people driven from nearby villages by Arab militias, sits on the highway between Jeneina and Khartoum.

STRAW: SUDAN MUST HELP DISPLACED PEOPLE
August 24, 2004 - (AP) British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, touring a sprawling desert camp housing 40,000 displaced people from the troubled western Darfur region, urged the Sudanese government to do more to make it safe for the frightened refugees to return home.

BRITISH MINISTER SEES 'SHOW CAMP' IN SUDAN
August 24, 2004 - (Reuters) Two rows of well-spaced mattresses with brightly colored covers are laid out in a straw hut, and the smiling nurse in surgical gloves gives an injection to a crying baby held by his mother.

DEATH AND SORROW STALK SUDANESE ACROSS BORDER
August 20, 2004 - (New York Times) Under the wide arms of an acacia tree, Khadija Adam Ahmed, 47, recounted the events that drove her to search for refuge: how Sudanese soldiers stole her herd of 75 cows during an attack six weeks ago at her village's well; how they shot at her feet to keep her from running, then blocked the road to the refugee camps across the border in Chad.

TARGETING THE TEACHERS OF DARFUR
August 18, 2004 - (Washington Post) She pulled tattered socks over her bony legs and stared at the ground, trying to hide the dirty, torn clothing she is so embarrassed to wear. Before a militia drove her African tribe off its farmland in western Sudan, before she had to wait in line for food rations in this refugee camp in the desert, Armani Tinjany was a high school agriculture teacher. Now she is a woman whose pride and energy are disintegrating.

HELP STOP THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN DARFUR
August 18, 2004 - (WOMENSENEWS) The civilians of Darfur in western Sudan have been victims since February 2003 of coordinated attacks by the Sudanese government and bands of Arab fighters on horse and camelback known as Janjawid militias.

U.N.: SUDAN POLICE SEXUALLY EXPLOITING DARFUR WOMEN
August 14, 2004 - (Reuters) Sudanese police officers sent to restore security in troubled Darfur are sexually exploiting refugee women, according to a U.N. report.

DARFUR: NEW ATROCITIES DISPROVE KHARTOUM'S CLAIMS
August 11, 2004 - (Human Rights Watch) The Sudanese government's pledges of progress in Darfur show little credibility as civilians face further atrocities amid growing insecurity in the region, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Instead of disarming the government-backed militias known as the Janjaweed, Khartoum has begun to incorporate them into police and other security forces that could be used to secure proposed 'safe areas' for displaced civilians.

SUDAN: IDPS AT RISK OF DISEASES AS HEPATITIS REPORTED
August 11, 2004 - (IRIN) Unless safe, clean water and better sanitation become more readily available in camps for displaced people in the troubled western Darfur region of Sudan, the people living there are at risk of contracting waterborne diseases like Hepatitis, health agencies warned.

FRIST: SANCTION THREAT WON'T END DARFUR CRISIS
August 10, 2004 - (Reuters) The U.S. Senate majority leader said on Tuesday the threat of sanctions against Sudan is not enough to stop what he called a campaign of genocide being waged by Arab militiamen in Sudan's western region of Darfur.

WOMEN AND CHILDREN BURNT ALIVE BY SUDANESE MILITIAS
August 5, 2004 - (Independent) Women and children are being chained together and burnt alive by Sudanese militias, in a chilling new development in the Darfur crisis.

SUDANESE WOMEN SEEK TO BRING DEMOCRACY BACK UP THE RIVER
August 5, 2004 - (UNHCR) Standing on the banks of the River Nile and looking north from Moyo district, Rebecca Dau can see her homeland. Sudan is so close to her plot of land in a UNHCR-run Uganda refugee settlement that she says she could walk there and back in one day. But although she can see Sudan just up the river, she sometimes thinks that the country she took flight from two years ago is in another world.

SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN SUDAN CAMPS OFTEN PREVENTABLE, INSISTS UNFPA
August 4, 2004 - (UN Population Fund) Every night, women leave the relative safety of the Aboushok internal refugee camp to collect firewood. During the day they sell the wood to buy food for their families.

DARFUR IDPS FEAR TO GO HOME DUE TO INSECURITY AND ABUSES - DENG
August 3, 2004 - (IRIN) Contrary to Sudanese government assertions that the security situation in the troubled western Darfur region has improved, civilians displaced by the conflict insist that violence perpetrated by Janjawid militias is continuing, a United Nations official said.

DEATH AND DECEPTION IN DARFUR
July 31, 2004 - (Washington Post) On the morning of July 12, hell descended on the village of Donki Dereisa. Shortly before sunrise, Fatima Ibrahim, 28, awoke to the deafening sound of exploding ordnance falling from the sky. As she emerged from her mud hut with her 10-year-old daughter, she saw fires blazing all around and scores of heavily armed men on horseback attacking from every direction. With bullets whistling past, Ibrahim and her daughter ran for their lives, ducking into a nearby ravine, where they hid without food or water for the next two days.

SUDAN SAYS REJECTS UN SANCTION THREAT
July 30, 2004 - (Reuters) The Sudanese government rejected a Security Council resolution passed Friday threatening to impose sanctions on Khartoum in 30 days if it does not prosecute and disarm militias in the Darfur region.

IN HELPING SUDAN'S REFUGEES, A FIGHT AGAINST TRUCK-EATING RIVERS
July 30, 2004 - (The Christian Science Monitor) Sitting at his desk, his office door shut tight, Robert Gillenwater doesn't have time for distractions. As his air conditioner hums weakly in the heat of Chad's capital, he's focusing hard on getting thousands of tons of cereals, vegetable oil, and a highly nutritional corn-soya blend to the 180,000 refugees who've fled across the border from fighting in neighboring Sudan.

WHAT THE CHILDREN SAW
July 29, 2004 - (The Guardian) It is during the night that the children die, when the desert temperatures drop and the winds and rains come. Here at the Breidjing refugee camp in remote eastern Chad, most of the refugees have no shelter to protect them and almost no food to sustain them. We came to Breidjing to see this humanitarian disaster for ourselves. What we saw appalled us. Six weeks ago, Breidjing housed 5,000 refugees; now there are 34,000 and 300 more arrive every day, fleeing the violence in Sudan's Darfur province.

UNICEF TRAINS SUDANESE POLICE ON RAPE SENSITIVITY
July 26, 2004 - (UN Wire) In the first police training of its kind in Sudan, 32 police officers completed a three-day UNICEF course on how to interview child victims of sexual violence and investigate child rape cases, UNICEF announced today.

YOUNG GIRLS, OLD WOMEN RAPED IN DARFUR - AMNESTY
July 19, 2004 - (Reuters) Government-backed Arab militia are raping, abducting and disabling girls as young as eight and women as old as 80 in the remote Sudanese region of Darfur, an international human rights group said on Monday.

SUDAN CRISIS: IN OUR SILENCE WE ARE COMPLICIT
July 17, 2004 - (Amnesty International) The mass rapes ongoing in Darfur are war crimes and crimes against humanity, but very little is being done to stop it.

UN RESOLUTION PUNISHING SUDAN OFF UNTIL NEXT WEEK
July 14, 2004 - (Reuters) Sudan has opened its doors to aid groups seeking to help more than a million uprooted people in Darfur, but militia are still terrorizing villagers, a U.N. relief official said on Wednesday.

DARFUR: FIGHTING, KILLING, RAPE, DISPLACEMENT CONTINUE
July 6, 2004 – (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) Despite a ceasefire signed in April between the Sudanese government and two rebel groups, fighting in Sudan's Darfur region continues to displace civilians who say they are innocent victims. Our staff in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, report that in the last few days, more than 100 desperate people - women, children and some men - made a dramatic journey on foot and on commercial flatbed trucks through heavy fighting to reach Kalma camp, near Nyala.

SUDAN CAMP IS MOVED BEFORE U.N. VISIT
July 2, 2004 – (The New York Times) There were only donkeys milling around in a soggy, trash-strewn lot on Thursday afternoon when the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, and his entourage arrived at what was supposed to be a crowded squatter camp here in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan.

THERE IS NO HUNGER SAYS SUDAN AS CHILDREN DIE
June 25, 2004 – (The Guardian) Seven months after gunmen on horseback drove Mohammed Ishaq's family from their village in West Darfur, hunger is about to claim the life of his baby son. The shortage of food that has wasted nine-month-old Zohar's limbs is widespread in Mornay refugee camp, where one child in five is suffering acute malnutrition. Since the beginning of the year the 75,000 refugees have had less than half the food considered necessary for survival.

GRIM TIMES IN SUDAN
June 23, 2004 – (BBC NEWS) Food and water are scarce, women have been gang-raped, disease is rife. In the Darfur conflict, even an experienced aid worker can be taken aback by the hardships suffered - but will the rest of the world hear Sudan's pleas for help?

SUDAN: DARFUR ATROCITIES SPILL INTO CHAD
June 22, 2004 – (Human Rights Watch) Backed by the Sudanese government, Janjaweed militias are launching assaults across the border into Chad, attacking and looting Chadian villagers as well as refugees from Darfur, Human Rights Watch said today. Despite a ceasefire agreement in Darfur, government troops and Janjaweed militias continue to commit atrocities in the western Sudanese region.

SUDAN'S FINAL SOLUTION
June 19, 2004 – (NYT Op-Ed) In my last column, I wrote about Magboula Muhammad Khattar, a 24-year-old woman whose world began to collapse in March, when the Janjaweed Arab militia burned her village and slaughtered her parents.

SUDAN: STUDY RANKS SOUTH WORST IN THE WORLD FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN
June 17, 2004 - (IRIN) After 21 years of civil war, southern Sudan ranks worst in the world for many key indicators of the wellbeing of women and children, including rates of chronic malnutrition, immunisation, antenatal care and primary school completion, according to a new study.

UNICEF STUDY SHOWS DIRE SITUATION FOR WOMEN, CHILDREN IN SOUTHERN SUDAN
June 16, 2004 – (UN NewsWire) A girl born in southern Sudan is 10 times more likely to die in childbirth or pregnancy than to complete primary school, a new study by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) shows as it observes Day of the African Child today. The study, Towards a Baseline: Best Estimates of Social Indicators for Southern Sudan, found that about one in nine women dies in pregnancy or childbirth, compared to one in 100 girls who finish primary school.

SUDANESE TELL OF MASS RAPE
June 10, 2004 – (BBC) The pro-government Janjaweed Arab militia has been accused of using systematic rape, as well as killing and destroying the villages of black Africans, in the conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region.

CRITICAL CARE FOR SUDANESE REFUGEES SEVERELY LACKING; REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE NEARLY NON-EXISTENT DESPITE WIDESPREAD RAPE IN DARFUR
June 2, 2004 - (ReliefWeb) Many Sudanese refugees who have fled the violence in Darfur for Chad are not receiving basic care or security, according to new findings by the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children and the United Nations Population Fund. Reproductive health care for the Sudanese refugees in Chad is nearly non-existent despite the widespread and systematic rape of women in Darfur by the Arab militia Janjaweed.

UNICEF ALARMED AT VULNERABILITY OF DISPLACED WOMEN AND CHILDREN
May 17, 2004 - (UNICEF) The one million people displaced from their homes in Sudan's Darfur region are at grave risk, with child malnutrition above 20 per cent overall, and as high as 80 per cent in some localities. Girls and women are especially vulnerable. The UN reports that many have been raped and assaulted as they fetched water and firewood. Many displaced people say they fear for their safety if they leave the camps where they have taken refuge.

UNFPA SENDS EMERGENCY AID TO WOMEN IN SUDAN'S DARFUR
May 5, 2004 – (UN Wire) Women in Sudan's western region of Darfur are suffering from widespread sexual violence and a lack of adequate maternal care, the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) said yesterday following a humanitarian assessment visit to the area last week by U.N. officials.

SENIOR UN OFFICIALS DEPLORE HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN DARFUR
May 5, 2004 – (IRIN) The humanitarian crisis in Darfur, western Sudan, is one of the worst in the world, and has been devastating to women and girls, according to senior UN officials.

WOMEN SUFFER BRUNT OF CONFLICT IN WESTERN SUDAN, UNFPA WARNS
May 4, 2004 – (UNFPA) Fund is Sending Emergency Assistance to Save Mothers' Lives and Counter Sexual Violence

AMNESTY REPORTS "SYSTEMATIC RAPE" IN WESTERN SUDAN
April 16, 2004 – (UN Wire) Amnesty International yesterday released a report urging the Sudanese government to address the degenerating humanitarian situation in the Darfur region, where it says reports have emerged of "the systematic rape of hundreds of women by the government-backed armed militia" in recent months. A U.N. fact-finding team has been denied access to the region.

SUDAN: SYSTEMATIC RAPE OF WOMEN AND GIRLS
April 15, 2004 – (Amnesty International) "In our culture, it is a shame, and women will hide this in their hearts so that the men do not hear about it," a woman interviewed by Amnesty International Alarming reports about the systematic rape of hundreds of women by the government backed armed militia, the Janjawid, have been coming from Darfur region in western Sudan over the past months, demonstrating the need for the international community to step up its pressure on the government. The Sudanese government must take urgent steps to address the human rights and humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Amnesty International said today.

WOMEN DEMAND A PLACE AT THE NEGOTIATING TABLE
April 9, 2004 – (IPS) Strategic Initiatives for the Horn of Africa, a regional organisation that promotes women's participation in politics, has called for gender issues to be addressed in the Sudanese peace negotiations.

MASS RAPE ATROCITY IN WEST SUDAN
March 19, 2004 – (BBC) Speaking to the BBC, the United Nations co-ordinator for Sudan, Mukesh Kapila, said the conflict had created the worst humanitarian situation in the world.

SECURITY, WOMEN'S VIEWS CRUCIAL AS UNHCR PAVES WAY FOR SOUTH SUDAN RETURNS
March 18, 2004 - (UNHCR) A high-level UNHCR team is to travel to Rumbek, south Sudan, on Friday to advance plans to open the refugee agency's first office there in 14 years.

SCORES IN SUDAN SAID MASSACRED BY GOVERNMENT
February 19, 2004 – (UN Wire) The U.S.-based human rights group Center for the Prevention of Genocide says it has confirmed reports that 81 civilians in the Darfur region of western Sudan were massacred last week by government-aligned militia known as the Janjawid.

MASS SUDANESE EXODUS CREATES 'INVISIBLE CRISIS'
January 29, 2004 - (Reuters) Drive through the wilderness playing host to an exodus of refugees fleeing attacks in western Sudan and the absence of one thing seems striking -- people.

CHAD-SUDAN: 18,000 SUDANESE REFUGEES FLEE INTO CHAD WITHIN 10 DAYS
January 28, 2004 - (IRIN) Some 18,000 refugees, fleeing renewed fighting in western Sudan's Darfur region, are reported to have arrived in Chad over the last 10 days, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

HORSE-RIDING SUDAN MILITIA TERRORISE WOMEN, CHILDREN
January 27, 2004 - (Reuters) Saida Ibrahim heard the thunder of stallions charging across the plain towards her village and ran for her life. "I was fetching water at the well when I heard the sound of gunshots and horses' hooves," said the 23-year-old after days of trekking with her barefoot daughter Selma strapped to her back.

SUDAN: 'MY LIFE AS A MODERN-DAY SLAVE'
January 26, 2004 – (BBC) On the surface, Mende Nazer is a bright, bubbly, confident young woman, quick to break into a beautiful infectious smile, which lights up her whole face. Nothing to suggest that she spent eight years of her life as a slave after being captured from her village in Sudan's Nuba Mountains.

SUDAN: CHIEF JUSTICE SUSPENDS FLOGGING OF GIRL
January 23, 2004 – (IRIN) The London-based human rights organisation Amnesty International has welcomed the suspension of a flogging sentence against a 16-year-old girl convicted last year of adultery, but urged the Sudanese authorities to treat the case in accordance to their obligations under international human rights law.

WAR IN WESTERN SUDAN OVERSHADOWS PEACE IN THE SOUTH
January 17, 2004 – (NYT) As Africa's longest-running civil war comes to a close in one corner of this vast country, a terrifying new theater, fueled by old ethnic divides and old-fashioned greed, opens here in another.

SUDANESE REFUGEES REPORT CONTINUED KILLINGS, LOOTINGS BY MILITIAS - UN
January 9, 2004 – (UN) Newly arrived Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad report that marauding militia groups continue to kill, burn, loot and empty entire villages in the Darfur region of western Sudan in a conflict that has sent some 95,000 people fleeing across the border since early last year, the United Nations refugee agency said today.

SUDAN: KILLINGS, ABDUCTIONS OF CHILDREN AND ARBITRARY DETENTION IN DARFUR
January 7, 2004 –(Amnesty International) As the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) sign an agreement on sharing oil and other revenues, civilians are caught up in the continuing conflict in Darfur between the government and its supporters and two armed opposition groups, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).


2003

RE-UNION HOPES FOR TROUBLED SUDANESE WOMEN
October 27, 2003 – (African Church Information Service) The ongoing conflicts in Sudan have largely interfered with family cohesion, with most men going into permanent hiding to avoid execution or conscription into enemy forces. There is now hope, however, for the abandoned women, following last week's affirmation that a final deal, which could end the 20-year-old civil war, may be arrived at by the end of this year. AANA Correspondent, Oscar Obonyo, reports.

SUDAN: AVOIDABLY HIGH MATERNAL DEATH RATES
October 21, 2003 - (IRIN) Women have a one-in-30 chance of dying in childbirth in northern Sudan, with higher rates in areas of the south, according to the UN.

SUDAN TO BAN FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION, HEALTH MINISTER SAYS
September 4, 2003 – (UN Wire) Sudan's Health Minister Ahmed Osman Bilal said last week during a regional symposium in Khartoum that the government will eradicate the practice of female genital mutilation in the country, Integrated Regional Information Networks reported yesterday. Sudan has the highest prevalence of the practice in the world, according to IRIN.

SPECIAL REPORT ON WOMEN IN THE SOUTH
August 20, 2003 – (IRIN) While the international community watches Sudan's leaders edge closer to a peace deal, the average southern Sudanese woman, although desperate for peace, has more immediate concerns.

MATERNAL DEATH RATES HIGHER IN SOUTHERN SUDAN, STUDY SHOWS
August 21, 2003 – (UN Wire) In areas of war-affected southern Sudan, maternal death rates are as high as 865 per 100,000 births, compared to 550 per 100,000 in the rest of the country, according to a UNICEF-sponsored study, From Survival to Thrival: Children and Women in the Southern Part of Sudan.

NGOS ACCUSE GOVERNMENT SECURITY ORGANS OF HARASSING WOMEN
June 16, 2003 - (African Church Information Service) Eight women from Nuba Indigenous Ruya Association were on June 3, harassed and detained in questionable circumstances by government security organs here.

CONCERN OVER REPORTED ARREST OF WOMEN ACTIVISTS
June 9, 2003 – (IRIN) The Swiss-based human rights group, World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), has expressed concern over a recent incident in which Sudanese security forces reportedly arrested a group of women activists, and it urged the authorities in Khartoum to conduct a "thorough and impartial" investigation. For the OMCT appeal, click here.

STUDY ON ABDUCTIONS IN SUDAN FINDS 10,000 ARE STILL MISSING
May 29, 2003 – (UN Wire) UNICEF hailed a new study released yesterday by the Rift Valley Institute that reveals that more than 10,000 Sudanese children and adults abducted by militia groups in the past 20 years remain missing.

UGANDAN, MOBINA JAFFER, SHINES IN CANADA
March 15, 2003 – (New Vision-Kampala) Mobina Jaffer is a Ugandan-born Asian lady working as a senator in British Columbia in Canada. She fled Uganda in 1975 during Idi Amin's regime. Patrick Luganda writes that she is an accomplished lawyer and special Canadian peace envoy to Sudan. She has also won several prestigious appointments in successive Canadian governments.

WOMEN MUST TAKE THEIR PLACE IN SUDANESE PEACE PROCESS: INTERVIEW
January 20, 2003 – (The East African -Nairobi) AWUT DENG, peace mobiliser for the Nairobi-based New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC), has made it her lifework to promote the rights of people in southern Sudan in general and women in particular. In the 20 years or so of her work, Deng has been instrumental in facilitating peace deals and conferences nationally and internationally, starting up women's organisations, and representing the interests of women and south Sudanese in such high-level negotiations as the Machakos Protocol, signed in July by the Sudan government and the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army. For her efforts, she last year received the InterAction Humanitarian Award, presented to her by US First Lady Laura Bush. CATHY MAJTENYI spoke to Deng about her work, Sudanese politics, and what it's like to be a woman in southern Sudan.

2002

SUDAN'S PROMINENT FEMINIST WRITER
July 29, 2002 - (afrol News) Sudanese author Kola Boof will not give into death threats, and continues to speak out about the "daily event" of enslavement in Sudan. The Islamist Khartoum government denies the existence of slavery in Sudan. The highly controversial feminist author further has caused rage among her fellow Muslim Sudanese lashing out against "manmade religions," and now lives in American exile.

SOUTHERN PEACE WORKER HONOURED
June 6, 2002 - (IRIN) Awut Deng Acuil, a peace worker in southern Sudan, has been declared a winner of the InterAction 2002 Humanitarian Award, in honour of her "extraordinary leadership" in promoting peace and development in the war-torn country.

WOMEN'S OPPRESSION MANIFESTS ITSELF IN VARIOUS FORMS
March 18, 2002 – (The Daily News - Harare) THE Pan African Movement (PAM) hosted a national conference of Sudanese women on "Women's Rights in the Sudan: Agenda for the Future", in Kampala, recently.

2000

WOMEN TO HAVE MORE SAY IN PEACE TALKS
July 21, 2000 – (Sudan Monthly Report) Sudanese women are set to have a greater say in peace negotiations for their country following the creation of a Women's Desk at the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Secretariat for Sudan.

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