NYALA, Darfur -- When Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in March, he responded by expelling 13 international aid agencies from Darfur and disbanding three other domestic relief groups. Khartoum claims the organizations were sharing information with the ICC, which both the groups and the court deny. With the void left by the ousted organizations, the United Nations has instituted emergency measures to help provide food, water, and other vital aid. But one service remains virtually decimated: support for rape survivors.
Many of the expelled agencies and disbanded groups worked together to provide comprehensive humanitarian services, including support for rape victims. And, in their absence, no one has been either willing or able to rebuild Darfur's delicate patchwork of medical, psycho-social, and legal services for survivors of what, in United Nations-speak, is called "GBV" (gender-based violence). "Since the expulsions, our main concern is for the women," one Darfuri leader in a sprawling camp for internally displaced persons, or IDPs, told me, as we took cover from the harsh desert sun under tattered plastic sheeting.
Rape has been prevalent throughout the crisis in Darfur. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported treating nearly 500 rape survivors from October 2004 to early February 2005. In late 2006, the International Rescue Committee recorded more than 200 sexual assaults within a five-week period around just one IDP camp. "Rape here is systematic," one of the staffers responsible for documenting incidents of sexual violence for the joint African Union/United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) told me. "I get new reports every day."
A decentralized and largely informal network of GBV support services grew painstakingly over five years, and it included some of the world's most well-respected aid organizations. The U.N. relied on the network's agencies to share information so that referral pathways could be developed to meet GBV survivors' needs. As a result, women who braved the social stigma associated with reporting rape in Darfur's Muslim society could receive medical care--from life-saving emergency assistance for injuries sustained during brutal attacks (often involving multiple assailants) to HIV/AIDS prophylactic treatment to psychological support.
The agencies faced steady opposition. Staff reported being harassed by government officials and running into bureaucratic obstacles, like Khartoum's persistent delays in signing the technical agreements that are necessary for aid organizations to operate in Darfur. And President Al Bashir personally undermined their cause by insisting that allegations of mass rape were being fabricated for political purposes. In an interview with Britain's Channel 4 last year, he said, "When it comes to mass rape, there is no document or evidence, just accusations. Anything which claims these things are documented is untrue. … The women inside the camps are under the influence of the rebels, and some are even relatives of the rebels. That's why they make these claims." The Norwegian Refugee Council was kicked out of Darfur in 2006 after publishing a report on the prevalence of rape--Khartoum claimed the findings were false--and the head of MSF-Holland was arrested in 2005 after his agency reported widespread GBV.
In the wake of this year's expulsions, Darfur's already fragile GBV-services network collapsed completely. Now, although there is no concrete evidence that the government intended to categorically remove GBV services, many local staffers say that, more than ever, they feel targeted and powerless. "After the expulsions, the message was clear--work on GBV, and you’ll be kicked out," one aid worker told me.
