The Darfur Consortium published an alarming report this week documenting the systematic abduction of Darfuri civilians by Janjaweed militias and the Sudanese Armed Forces throughout the Darfur conflict.
The report indicates that since 2003, hundreds, possibly thousands, of Darfuris from non-Arabic speaking ethnic groups such as the Fur, Massaleit and Zaghawa, were abducted for the purposes of serving as sex slaves and laborers to the Janjaweed and other Sudanese government-backed militias. One Darfuri woman who was abducted and managed to escape described what happened to her and other women abducted from a displaced camp in 2005:
They used us like their wives in the night and during the day time we worked all the time – preparing food, collecting firewood and fetching water from nearby. The men they abducted with us were used to look after their livestock. We worked all day, all week with no rest. I believe those who I left behind are still doing the same work.
For its part, the Sudanese government called the report “very naïve,” a response that is in keeping with Khartoum’s track record of “there are no problems” in Darfur approach.