In Darfur, rapes continue' Is anybody listening?

Life for them holds no importance it's just a synonym with sexual slavery. Feelings, which evoke a sense of liveliness, have relinquished them, at least, for this birth; they see nothing except vast expanse of wounded, starving, diseased adults and dying infants.

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They have seen their houses reduced to ashes, they have witnessed sexual molestation, rapes, and beatings from the strangers in front of their helpless family members. They were forced to walk for days carrying their children through baking heat and dust storms, to insecure refugee camps. They don't know whom to blame, their fate or the surroundings, they are oblivious of peace ridden countries, for them the world comprises of hatred and bloodshed and for us, it's' 'just another case'!

This is also a section of society and yes, they are very much breathing in the stretches of Africa, the vast continent that witnessed numerous upheavals under the government-sponsored program in the name of 'ethnic cleansing' or the brutal rape of women and children. The conflict has claimed the life of more than 200,000 people and forced millions to live as refugees since 2003.

Is rape 'really' a weapon of war?

Now, the most important aspect of this so called 'ethnic cleansing' is Arabisation of the next generation by destroying the non Arab communities, quite similar to that of 1994 genocide against the Tutsis in Rawanda. As Pamela Shifman, a U.N. expert on violence and sexual exploitation says, rape is being used

to terrorize individual women and girls ' to terrorize their families and to terrorize entire communities. No woman or girl is safe.

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With the intention of keeping the rebel groups at bay from controlling any territory in Darfur, the Islamic government has propagated various operations of terrorizing Muslim women in the region by victimizing them by Muslim men from the Arabic nomadic tribes known as the Janjaweed.

The ramifications of rape as a weapon of war never seem to end. Women and girls have been pulverized into the dicer of their (Sudanese government and ally Arab militia) scorched earth campaign against the region's African communities and in 90% of the rape cases the rapists have kept the women alive and sent them back to their community, shattering the families and the very faith which gives life meaning, is cheapened and rendered as an expedient political tool.

Brutal violence is spiraling on a daily basis. Women in the camps desperately need help recovering from their trauma and rape victims need vastly greater medical services. The Sudanese government has not only failed in its duty to protect civilians, it has also actively violated its legal obligations to protect civilians. In most of the cases, they are the culprits in harassing women folk; they even charge women with adultery if they are not able to pay the fine.

The molestation of native women in Darfur in the sheath of 'ethnic cleansing' is purely disreputable that shows the society's flaw of inequality, which will reverberate through Sudanese culture and society. The international communities must work in unison to put a final stop to the rising menace and bring relief to those who have survived but continue to suffer.

They are 'still' residing amidst the smoke of their burnt dwellings and are breathing the suffocating air of anxiety, 'nourishing' the apprehension that they might be the next one. They are enduring punishment for the crime, which they have never committed, they are struggling but the sludge of hopelessness is pulling them towards itself; with open arms, they are crying for help, begging for mercy' Is anybody listening?