• Email
• Print
• Text size: A A A

Update on the Crisis in Darfur (June, 2006)

As the crisis in Darfur rages on, into its third year, more than two million people have been forced to flee their homes and are spread across a vast, unprotected area, where they continue to be attacked by government-allied janjaweed militias. UNICEF reports that nearly two million children have been directly harmed by the violence, some of them displaced multiple times. The war has now spilled over into neighboring Chad, where janjaweed militias massacred villagers in April, adding to a death toll that already surpasses 460,000. Since April, fighting between rival rebel groups has also affected civilians, escalating the death toll even further. In late May, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that the violence had reached unprecedented levels. The UN has since announced that it may withdraw its aid workers from Darfur.

Rape is a primary weapon in this war. Women—who are struggling to keep their families alive in remote refugee camps that lack food, water, and healthcare—are routinely raped when they venture outside of the camp to fetch water, collect wood, or plant crops. Women who survive these attacks are often ostracized by their families for having been raped. Many have been banished from their homes for pregnancies resulting from rape.

MADRE is responding to the crisis with our partner Zenab, a Sudanese women's organization working in El Sieref and other refugee camps, where women have been systematically raped, children fear for their lives, and traumatized families lack even basic necessities.

The generous response from MADRE members in April and May will make it possible for Zenab to:

• Build enclosed toilets within the camp, allowing women to enjoy a modicum of privacy and security; and reducing the need to leave the camps, which will help to improve security for displaced women and girls.
• Provide trained social workers to offer play therapy to traumatized children, as well as conduct training sessions for local women and men about the harmful consequences of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)—which Zenab reports is practiced on almost every young girl.
• Feed fifty families—approximately 400 people. Food resources are an incredibly important part of aid efforts, especially as UN and other aid agencies in the region are scrambling to find enough funds for rations needed by more than two million displaced people.

As the New York Times recently reported, malaria is one of the biggest killers in Darfur today. There is an urgent need for mosquito netting and other basic items, such as plastic sheeting, soap, buckets, cups, and clean clothing.

The onset of the rainy season this month will make large-scale aid deliveries even more difficult, as roads become impassable. Yet MADRE's partnership with a locally-based women's organization (that is already working on the ground in El Sieref and other refugee camps) will make it possible for us to distribute emergency aid directly to women who are most in need.

MADRE is continuing to raise funds to respond to the urgent need for these items and other supplies for our sisters in Darfur.

MADRE and Zenab have been working with displaced women and their families in Darfur since 2004 to deliver food and clothing, improve security in refugee camps in order to prevent rapes, and provide counseling and play therapy for traumatized children.

Please read MADRE's Notes on the Crisis in Darfur for more background information.

Please help us to make a difference by donating today.