The Plight of Darfuri Women

Physicians for Human Rights, an American human rights group, is documenting the continued widespread sexual violence against Darfuri women in Sudan and Chad. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the group issued a report this past Sunday “documenting the scope and long-term impact of rape and other sexual violence” experienced by women who fled the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur and now live as refugees in neighboring Chad. The findings of the report are based on interviews with 88 female refugees living in Chad's Farchana refugee camp. “Many Darfuri women refugees live in a nightmare of memories of past trauma compounded by the constant threat of sexual violence around the camps now,” said Susannah Sirkin, the physician group's deputy director.

“Women who report being raped are stigmatized, and remain trapped in places of perpetual insecurity,” she continued. “There's no one to stop the rapes, no one to turn to for justice for past or ongoing crimes, and little psycho-social support to address their prolonged and unimaginable traumas.” The group is pushing for the issuing of International Criminal Court warrants against the Sudanese perpetrators.

In the midst of this, one must ask: where is the international outcry against this horror? Why is there so much silence in the midst of such suffering?