Sudan police exploit displaced Darfur women – U.N

KHARTOUM, Aug 14 (Reuters) – Sudanese police officers sent to restore security in the troubled Darfur region are sexually exploiting displaced women, a U.N. report said.

Khartoum has said it deployed10,000 police to the western Darfur region where the government has about two weeks to show the U.N. Security Council it is serious about improving the security situation or face unspecified sanctions.

“IDPs (Internally Displaced People) report increasing incidents of sexual abuse and exploitation in Abu Shouk Camp near el-Fasher committed by police officers,” said the U.N. humanitarian situation report received by Reuters on Saturday.

Khartoum pledged last week to set up safe areas for the 1 million people the United Nations says have been uprooted by what it calls the world’s worst humanitarian disaster, triggered by fighting which erupted in early 2003.

The United Nations says up to 50,000 people have died as a result of the conflict. The government says the figure does not exceed 5,000.

“According to the IDPs the police are exploiting women’s inability to venture outside of the camp to collect firewood out of fear of Janjaweed attacks by collecting the firewood for the women in exchange for sexual favours,” the report added.

Rights groups and the two main rebel groups in Darfur say Khartoum armed Arab militiamen known locally as Janjaweed — a term derived from the Arabic for “devils on horseback” — to loot and burn African farming villages.

The report also said some of the police officers had threatened women looking for firewood with violence if they did not comply with their demands.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said in a speech on Saturday that Sudan would be able to deal with the Darfur crisis.

“We are capable, with the help of God, to cast down discord in Darfur and to settle the situation and to achieve security, social peace, the unity of our nation and the rule of law,” he said.