SUDAN:For all the pressure, protests and peace missions, little has changed, writes Rob Crillyin Sileia
FIVE YEARS into Darfur's bloody conflict and it seems as if nothing has changed. For all the international pressure, protest marches and peacekeepers, the stories of the women in the small, ramshackle town of Sileia sound eerily familiar.
First came the government Antonovs, they say, softening up the town's rebel defences with bombs dropped on three sites in the village.
Next came the mounted Arab gunmen - the Janjaweed - looting and destroying everything in sight.They were followed by government soldiers, who have controlled the town for almost two months.
Now, the women say the soldiers are doing what soldiers do in times of war in towns where the men are away fighting. At night, single women bed down close to the house of the Fursha - a tribal mayor - where they can be better protected.
"Three days ago there were women sleeping who were woken by soldiers with guns in the middle of the night," said Mariam Ibrihim Adam (58). "I don't know what happened but there were men with women and then all the women ran to the Fursha's house for protection."
She won't mention rape. The subject is far too taboo in this sun-beaten part of Sudan where life has changed little in centuries. Here raped women bring shame to their families and to their tribe.
Aid workers familiar with the town say some women may be working as prostitutes - another taboo subject - but that rape is becoming a concern.
Mariam said elders had asked the Sudanese commander in Sileia to take action, but for now many women were too frightened to return to their homes at the edge of town.
A report by Human Rights Watch underlines the fact that five years into the conflict, women and girls still need protection from rape throughout Darfur.
The New York-based pressure group says it had documented numerous incidents of sexual violence by Sudanese government soldiers, members of government-backed Janjaweed militias, rebels and former rebel groups since 2007. Researchers believe the vast majority of attacks are never reported.
Georgette Gagnon, Africa director of Human Rights Watch, said: "The Sudanese government has declared 'zero-tolerance' for sexual violence, yet has done almost nothing to protect these victims."
Rape has been used as a weapon of war from the start of the conflict in 2003.
The most recent violence occurred during February as Sudanese Armed Forces, backed by Janjaweed, tried to clear a corridor north of El Geneina in West Darfur. Air and ground attacks led to 100 deaths in the towns of Sirba, Sileia, and Abu Suruj.
In a visit to Sirba, witnesses told UN human rights monitors that up to 10 women and girls were either raped or sexually assaulted.
Soldiers, militia, rebels, and ex-rebels also rape women and girls outside displaced persons camps and in rural areas, says the report, which is based on more than 50 interviews with victims.
A 12-year-old girl described how an armed Arab man in uniform lured her and her younger sister into a secluded area by pretending to help them find their lost donkey.
"He said if we went with him he would show us. He grabbed me and took off my clothes to do bad things to me. My younger sister ran back to the camp."
Survivors are often too afraid to report attacks, said Gagnon, and the government has not done enough to tackle the problem.
"The victims of these horrific attacks have little or no hope of redress in Darfur's current climate of impunity," she said.
"By failing to prosecute the perpetrators, the government is giving them a licence to rape."
An under-resourced and under-motivated African Union forced was replaced with a joint African Union and UN mission on January 1st.
It will eventually comprise 26,000 soldiers and police officers, making it the biggest peacekeeping effort in the world and three times the size of the African mission. Although it has few extra soldiers so far, it has begun to reintroduce night patrols and to protect women collecting firewood outside camps.
"Five years living in fear of rape is five years too long," said Gagnon."Women and girls in Darfur urgently need protection, and those who are victims need justice."