Third of female Darfur refugees report or show signs of rape

A human rights group’s survey of women who fled Sudan’s Darfur conflict found that a third reported or showed signs of rape and revealed a widespread fear of continuing sexual violence in their refugee camp in Chad.

About half the rapes reported by the women were perpetrated in Darfur by janjaweed militiamen allied to the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum and half were assaults by Chadian villagers near the United Nations refugee camp.

The US-based Physicians for Human Rights called for the prosecution of rape as a war crime and urged the International Criminal Court to issue warrants against Sudanese suspects.