"All around the camps there is not enough wood. But the Arab
Jammala dominate the area and we daren’t go far out. If you are
a man you will be beaten, if you are a woman you will be raped."
– Internally displaced man living in a camp, 2007. At least 2.3
million people have been displaced by the conflict in Darfur.
Most of those driven from their homes and communities are now
living in more than 65 camps dotted around Darfur. Hundreds of
thousands of people were driven from their home in 2003-4 in
attacks that were accompanied not only by killing, but also by
rape of women on an unprecedented scale. Janjawid militias used
rape as a weapon to humiliate and punish the communities they
attacked. They often carried out assaults in public and
abducting some women, taking them to militia camps to live for
months in sexual slavery. There are more women living in camps
than men and the threat of rape remains rife for those who
venture outside the camps. Many of the camps are surrounded by
belts of deserted land with h