Mass Rape in Darfur

Sexual violence against women and children in Darfur is increasingly widespread (UNICEF, 2006). The physical consequences of rape in Darfur are severe. Women are raped and killed, or raped and left to die, or they survive only to be raped again next time they venture outside the camp to fetch water. The brutality of the attacks is extreme and physical injuries are common.

Amnesty International (2004) has characterized violence against women in Darfur as "systematic human rights violations,” and it is estimated that thousands have been sexually assaulted (p. 5; Human Rights Watch, 2006). Women and girls have been indiscriminately killed, raped, tortured, abducted, sold as sexual slaves, and forcibly displaced since 2003 in Darfur (Amnesty International, 2004). Doctors Without Borders reports that 99% of rape victims seen in its clinics and hospitals are females, ranging from 12-45 years of age (Medicines Sans Frontieres, MSF, 2005). At least 400 women were reportedly raped in a single town in central Darfur.

Between October 2004 and February 2005, MSF physicians treated almost 500 rape victims in Darfur, 297 of these were in areas of Western Darfur. More than half of the rapes were reported within 30 days, and 22% were reported within 3 days due to acute conditions. Many women were visibly pregnant at the time of the rape and some experiences miscarriage as a result. Approximately 7% of women arrived at the clinic or hospital knowing they had become pregnant through the attack (MSF, 2005).

All of the patients treated by MSF reported similar “mechanisms of violence and persecution” during the assaults. Assailants were reported to carry guns and wear military uniforms. 81% of victims report that their rapists are militia or military who used their weapons to force the assault. Almost 90% said that the rape occurred outside a populated village, town, or camp, while 4% said they were raped while fleeing their home village (MSF, 2005).

The majority (82%) were raped while they had left populated areas to pursue daily activities, such as searching for firewood or thatch, working in their fields, fetching water, traveling to the market or retrieving their family’s belongings in a destroyed village. 28% of those treated by MSF reported that they were raped more than one time, either by single or multiple assailants. Many reported being held captive for several days and raped repeatedly by multiple men. 65% of women said they were attacked while they were in a group. Almost half of the survivors reported that there were multiple women sexually assaulted along with them. The ongoing insecurity outside populated areas forces people to stay within their villages and the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps.

Because women know that they are likely to be raped if they left the relative security of the IDP camps, they were afraid to leave in order to fetch water, tend to their fields, or gather food. The terrifying reality is that if Janjawid militiamen encounter a woman, she will be raped; if they encounter a man, he will be killed. The desperate choice that families must make is whether to risk rape for survival, and women sacrifice themselves to gather food, water, and other necessities for their families. Because such excursions are treacherous, they are avoided until absolutely necessary. Untended fields fail, yielding meager nutrition for starving families living the IDP camps. Starvation is a critical problem in Darfur, and the danger involved in cultivating and gathering food and water have been identified as a primary cause. Acute malnutrition has reached 27% in Darfur (UNICEF, 2006).

Although some women report being subjected to sexual violence, it is difficult to determine how many women and girls have been exposed to this abuse because of shame, cultural and political factors, and fear (Amnesty International, 2004; Human Rights Watch, 2005; Masciarelli and Eveleens, 2004; Polgreen, 2005). MSF (2006) asserts that the number of women who present in their clinics with symptoms from rape represent only a tiny fraction of the total affected. One survivor explained, “the extent of the rape is difficult to determine since women are reluctant to talk about it and men, although willing to report it, speak only in generalities” (Masciarelli and Eveleens, 2004, para. 12). The fact that survivors regularly report multiple victims and attacks on groups of women supports the assertion that these crimes are drastically underreported.

In addition to cultural views about the shame and humiliation of rape, certain political and practical procedures prevent women from reporting sexual assault. Until recently, women and girls who were raped were subjected to arrest if they reported the crime to the police (Kinnock, 2006). Additionally, rape survivors were required to complete a document called “Form 8” with the local police authorities before the survivor could access medical treatment at a public institution. MSF reports that these practices have resulted in underreporting and of rape and denial of much needed medical treatment to civilian women.

Physical Consequences of Mass Rape in Darfur
All of the patients treated by MSF reported similar “mechanisms of violence and persecution” during the assaults. Assailants were reported to carry guns and wear military uniforms. 81% of victims report that their rapists are militia or military who used their weapons to force the assault. Almost 90% said that the rape occurred outside a populated village, town, or camp, while 4% said they were raped while fleeing their home village (MSF, 2005).

The majority (82%) were raped when left IDP camps or other populated areas to pursue daily activities, such as searching for firewood or thatch, working in their fields, fetching water, traveling to the market or retrieving their family’s belongings from a destroyed village. 28% of those treated by MSF reported that they were raped more than one time, either by single or multiple assailants. Many reported being held captive for several days and raped repeatedly by multiple men. 65% of women said they were attacked while they were in a group. Almost half of the survivors reported that there were multiple women sexually assaulted along with them. The ongoing insecurity outside populated areas forces people to stay within their villages and the IDP camps.

After a rape, it is common for women to be beaten or even killed. In more than half of the cases reported to MSF (2005), physical violence was inflicted beyond rape, and 4% reported severe and sustaining physical injuries after the assault. Women are regularly beaten with sticks, whips or axes, and the physical consequences for resisting the attack or defending oneself are more severe (MSF, 2005). Many women were beaten, stabbed, or shot during or after these assaults. Witnesses, especially those who intervene are assaulted or killed. Torture techniques such as pulling out finger- and toe-nails, extreme physical intimidation, and mutilation have been employed against the civilian population.

One of the hallmarks of sexual violence in this conflict is the tendency for the perpetrator to break the survivor’s arms or legs to prevent them from escaping during days or weeks of confinement in sexual slavery. Breaking these bones also prevented the women from returning to the relative safety of the IDP camps or villages when they are abandoned after the rape. This tactic leaves survivors vulnerable to further predation by other Janjawid who may find them in this state, unable to flee. Women left in the desert left with broken legs may succumb to exposure, dehydration, starvation, and animal attacks. If they survive the ordeal, the physical and psychological trauma can be immense.

Sexual violence can cause numerous medical consequences, including internal bleeding, fistulas, incontinence, infection with Hepatitis B and C, HIV/AIDS, and other diseases (Human Rights Watch, 2005; WHO, DATE). Sexual violence also exposes women to potentially unsafe abortions and traumatic, complicated childbirths in areas without adequate medical care. Because of political factors in the Sudan, it is difficult for women who have been raped to obtain gynecological and obstetric care without exposing themselves to arrest, fines, or bureaucratic nightmares.

In Darfur, the health crisis caused by mass rape of women and girls is reaching desperate proportions (Human Rights Watch, 2005). Clinics are unprepared to handle the influx of affected women, and do not possess the necessary equipment and training to respond effectively to mass rape. As of February 2005 only one of the six health service agencies in Chad’s refugee camps had a protocol for rape including emergency contraception, comprehensive treatment of sexually transmitted disease and post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV (Human Rights Watch, 2005).

Rates of HIV have skyrocketed in Darfur and Eastern Chad as rampant sexual violence spreads the disease. In 2003 the HIV rates for Darfur and Chad were 2.3% and 4.8% respectively (Human Rights Watch, 2005). In 2006, it is reported that 11% of 180 people tested HIV-positive at a voluntary counseling and testing clinic in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state. HIV and other sexually transmitted infections and diseases reduce the population over time, and these problems will have to be addressed by disorganized and under-funded health care providers.

The physical consequences of rape in Darfur are severe, acute, and long-lasting. Women are raped and killed, or raped and left to die, or they survive only to be raped again next time they venture outside the camp to fetch water. The brutality of the attacks is extreme and physical injuries are common. Darfur will need considerable assistance to address the health crisis that this conflict created.
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Psychosocial Consequences
Rapes are combined with physical abuse and torture, starvation, verbal abuse, and other forms of domination and humiliation in order to maximize the trauma to the survivor. Weapons such as guns, axes, and whips were commonly used to intimidate and threaten the women. It has been shown that these techniques often increase the intensity of the traumatic response in the survivor. Brutal and public rapes send a message of fear, humiliation, and intimidation to the target community. This type of widespread sexual assault encourages flight from areas where the attacks occurred, because the place becomes a traumatic reminder for both survivors and witnesses.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR, DATE) reported that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is common in rape survivors in Darfur. PHR notes that posttraumatic stress can result in “depression, anxiety, nightmares, social phobias, and physical complaints.” The World Health Organization lists anxiety, anger, shame, depression, post-traumatic stress, and suicide as potential psychological consequences of sexual violence in Darfur.

Rapists in Darfur often used dehumanizing epithets, including “slaves and “black slave” to refer to African women from the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups (Wax, 2004). This form of ethnically oriented verbal abuse increases the suffering of the raped woman, and it is considered a message to others in her group, who may be forced to watch the assault.
Public rapes have been common in Darfur, with family members and/or the wider community witnessing the rape and torture take place. Anyone who tried to intervene was beaten, stabbed, or killed. This tactic of exposing the community and family to the rape of women magnifies the intensity of the traumatic response, because witnesses may also develop posttraumatic symptoms. There are social consequences for being raped, and one of the purposes of conducting public rapes is to prevent the survivor from concealing the event to avoid marginalization and stigma.

The perpetrators use their knowledge of the social consequences of rape to maximize damage to the target population. Rape is considered shameful in Darfur, and the survivor is often shunned or punished for being raped. Survivors are not acceptable wives, and they may be cast out if they are married at the time of the assault, especially if injuries affect reproductive capacities. Care of the children and the household is the sole responsibility of women in Darfur and injured or traumatized women are considered less valuable as wives (Amnesty International, 2004).

One survivor described how excited she had been about her engagement until she was raped and her fiancé said he would not marry her because she was “disgraced and spoilt” [sic] (MSF, 2005, p#; WHO, DATE). She says, “It is the worse thing for me” (MSF, 2005, p#). The stigma of rape is a crushing burden because of the associated social and economic disadvantages. Unmarried women do not have the financial and physical protection that married women do in the Sudan, and this places survivors at further risk for abuse and starvation.

Three adolescent survivors in Darfur attempted to conceal the rapes by telling neighbors about the Janjawid attack, without mentioning the sexual assaults. Assumptions and gossip spread. It was clear that neighbors knew the girls had been raped, because they changed their treatment of the girls. One of the survivors told a journalist that when people discover a woman has been raped, "They scorn you. They laugh at you… They look at you as if you are strange, as if they haven't seen you before" (Timberg, 2006).

Because of the widespread sexual assaults of young women and girls, families worry that they cannot protect their young women’s sexual virtue. As a result, parents attempt to marry off their daughters early in order to preserve the family honor. The “bride price” in the camps has decreased to the point where families will marry their daughters to anyone who can scrape together minimal compensation for the family. This exposes young women and girls to potentially abusive spouses, early sexual intercourse (with the husband), and young marriage with few choices. Additionally, marriage is no protection against rape, so early marriage of daughters may not ultimately protect the family honor if the daughters are raped after marriage and subsequently left by their husbands, which is the common practice.

Symbolic & Community Consequences
The rapes committed in Darfur have symbolic as well as physical and psychosocial consequences. Rape with intent to impregnate is a central strategy utilized by the Janjawid and military officers perpetrating mass rape in Darfur because in Sudan, as in many Arab cultures, children’s ethnicity is derived solely from their father’s identity (Wax, 2004). The rapes occur as part of a strategy to increase Arabization of the people of Sudan. It is believed that an Arab father produces an Arab baby and this symbolic and cultural information becomes a weapon of genocide and a tool of ethnic cleansing when applied in this manner.

As one aid worker in Darfur stated, "Everyone knows how the father carries the lineage in the culture. They want more Arab babies to take the land." One survivor reported the Janjawid said to her, “Black girl, you are too dark. You are like a dog. We want to make a light baby… You get out of this area and leave the child when it's made.” (Wax, 2004).

Children of rape and the mothers who bear them are particularly punished within their own communities. In Darfur, this is particularly true because it is believed that a women can only conceive during consensual sex, not during rape (Amnesty International, 2004). It is considered evidence of the woman’s consent, enjoyment, or participation if she becomes pregnant as a result of a sexual assault. Pregnant women who are raped may be fined or imprisoned for adultery in Darfur, which is a traumatic for those women who try to seek help from the authorities. These women are humiliated and generally cast out or rejected by their families and communities.

The child is considered the enemy, because of its father’s identity. Sometimes communities will reaccept a raped woman if she abandons, aborts, or destroys the baby. There may be considerable pressure on pregnant rape survivors to decide what to do with the child, because there are extreme consequences associated with each potential outcome.