Tracking the War on Women in Darfur

Seated on a woven straw mat in a refugee camp in eastern Chad, Dr. Sondra Crosby of the Boston Medical Center listened with mounting distress as the women of Darfur came forward, one by one over 12 days, to tell her their stories of rape, beatings, hunger, and humiliation.

She and three other Boston-area medical specialists interviewed 88 women in November in eastern Chad. This morning they released the results in a report that offers unprecedented and disturbing details on the long-term effects of the assaults - as well as fresh evidence of the continuing violence against the women of Darfur, years after they fled the battlefield.

The 88 women interviewed reported suffering 32 rapes. Of those, 17 occurred in Darfur and 15 in Chad. Seven women reported being the victim of gang rape in Darfur, and three women reported being raped more than once. For two of them, rape in Darfur was followed by rape in Chad.

The story of one woman, in particular, transfixed Crosby, who lives in Dedham with her five adopted children and has made it her calling to investigate cases of torture and abuse.

"The woman told me . . . she was beaten on her arms so badly that she couldn't use them, and she was raped by four to six men," Crosby recalled. "She witnessed the same thing happen to others who were hiding with her. She was eight months pregnant at the time. She described giving birth to a dead baby, and how painful it was. After the rape her husband divorced her."

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War Crimes Suspect Heads Sudan Post

A man wanted for alleged war crimes in Darfur has been appointed as governor for Sudan's disputed south Kordofan province.

Ahmed Harun was named as being chosen to head the oil-rich region in a decree issued on Thursday by Omar al-Bashir, who is also sought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes.

Harun, who had been the minister of state for humanitarian affairs, had an arrest warrant issued against him in 2007. Harun is wanted by the ICC for allegedly allowing rapes and murder to be committed in Darfur.

The ICC has 51 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Harun, which were allegedly committed in Sudan's western Darfur region in 2003 and 2004.

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Sent back by Britain. Executed in Darfur.

Failed asylum-seeker followed home from airport and shot by Sudan security officials.

A failed asylum-seeker who returned to Darfur under a government repatriation scheme has been murdered by Sudanese security officers after they followed him home from the airport in Khartoum, The Independent has learnt.

Adam Osman Mohammed, 32, was gunned down in his home in front of his wife and four-year-old son just days after arriving in his village in south Darfur.

The case is to be used by asylum campaigners to counter Home Office attempts to lift the ban on the removal and deportation to Sudan of failed asylum-seekers. Next month, government lawyers are expected to go to court to argue that it is safe to return as many as 3,000 people to Khartoum.

Read More At the Independent