Darfur women praise AU protection from militias

By Opheera McDoom

ZALENGEI, Sudan, April 20 (Reuters) – Like other young Darfuri women, Hawa Yehya used to be terrified to go out to look for firewood in case she was attacked and raped by Arab militia. Today the young mother is no longer afraid to make the trip.

Displaced women walk in front of a Rwandan soldier in Kab Kabiya, north west of El-Fasher, Sudan. (AFP).

This is not because the militias known as Janjaweed have made peace, but because African Union (AU) forces are patrolling the routes women use around Zalengei town in central Darfur.

“They are wonderful. We want them to stay,” Yehya said. “Now we are not so scared to leave the camps,” she said as she returned home with a large bundle of wood on her head.

The 20-year-old is one of more than 62,000 people who have fled to Zalengei and surrounding camps in more than two years of fighting in Darfur, a vast arid region in western Sudan.

Tens of thousands have been killed and more than 2 million uprooted by the conflict between non-Arab rebels and the Arab-dominated government. Khartoum denies rebel accusations it is backing the Janjaweed.

Surrounded by burnt villages and perilous roads plagued by banditry and militia attacks, Zalengei is often cut off from aid as it lies in a region where tensions between Arab nomads and non-Arab farmers still run high.

Women in Darfur walk up to 10 km (6 miles) to collect firewood to burn as fuel and to sell in the markets for cash. But they are often raped or beaten if they venture out.

The men don’t leave the town because they say the militias would kill them.

Halima Adam Ahmed, 35, said things had improved since the AU arrived. “If the AU are there, we can go. They provide protection. But if they are not there, we cannot go,” she said.

Local aid worker Abdallah al-Hajj Mohamed, who is from mixed Arab and non-Arab background, said AU troops were disliked when they arrived in January because residents could see no benefit. But their popularity has grown since the patrols.

The African Union has around 120 troops and monitors in Zalengei. They specify particular routes and times when they patrol so women can leave the town.

The AU presence has also opened up roads for aid workers which the United Nations had previously closed, deeming them too risky.

But the dangers have not gone away. A group of women was recently attacked and one was raped when they left their camp on a day there was no patrol, AU officer Joseph Aphour said.

JANJAWEED WANT AID

Sector commander Anthony Mundubi said the local people expected too much from the AU troops who are only mandated to monitor a shaky ceasefire signed just over a year ago and have limited powers to protect civilians.

Many Darfuris want a peacekeeping force, but Mundubi said his first priority would be for a massive increase in troops in Zalengei.

“We are talking about 1,000 plus, to 2,000,” he told Reuters. The entire AU mission in Darfur totals only 3,300.

Officer Aphour said local Janjaweed leaders had held a meeting with the AU where they said they also wanted humanitarian assistance, including digging bore holes for water on their cattle-grazing routes.

Although this would also help locals, Mundubi said the militias should not receive any help.

“They are the people that are attacking the innocent civilians,” the sector commander said. “We agree that they are suffering … (but first) let them be disarmed … then assistance,” he said.

Both Mundubi and Aphour said they believed the Janjaweed were working with the Sudanese armed forces to put down the rebellion.

Aphour said the Janjaweed were almost always present on the outskirts of government bases.

Mundubi said the government must commit to disarming them. “They are the stop-gap of the government of Sudan’s troops,” he added.