04/20/2006

While there is “peace” in south Sudan since the signing of the comprehensive peace agreement (CPA) that ended the 22-year North-South war, life still remains unpredictable and difficult for many Sudanese. Particularly vulnerable are women and their children. Refugees International interviewed Bakita (not her real name) in Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal, a state that borders South Darfur. She has been living in South Darfur for the past 12 years and recently returned to her small village in the south. RI accompanied staff of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to visit her village near Maluakon and learned that its population had grown from approximately 200 people to over 500 in the past few weeks. There are only two water pumps and no schools.

When asked why she left her village in Northern Bahr-el Ghazal she told us, “My child was abducted. They took my child to Darfur so I followed to try to get her back. I reported this to the police there and the police rescued her. Things were bad here so we then decided to live in South Darfur. Then when things became bad there, we moved to the [internally displaced] camp there. It wasn’t healthy and we heard that there was peace at home so we came back. The government authorities here told us to come home so I came home. I have been collecting firewood in Darfur to get the money we need. My husband lives in Khartoum with his second wife so I do not see him. I have a number of things that I need here. Our life is in the hands of people like you. Our only problem now is hunger.”

Through the 1990s, one of the rallying calls throughout the US was to end slavery in Sudan. The issue of slavery in Sudan is complex as abduction of humans (mostly women and children) was a dormant cultural tradition in parts of Sudan that resurfaced when the civil war broke out in 1983. These abductions fall under the category of “trafficking” -- the transport and/or trade of women, children and men from one area to another for the purpose of forcing them into slavery conditions. Some estimate that during the years of civil war and resulting inter-tribal warfare, an estimated 15,000 Dinka women and children were abducted in the western and southern regions of the country. An additional 3,500 abductions reportedly occurred in regions held by the southern rebel force, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement.

The inter-tribal abductions which were labeled slavery are a by-product of the violence that has plagued Sudan. Abductees frequently became part of the abductor’s tribal family, with many women marrying into the new tribe; however, some victims of abduction were used for forced domestic labor and/or sexual exploitation. With the implementation of the CPA, abductions have decreased. Despite the nominal peace, women in this area of Sudan are still not safe. In Darfur, the conflict is characterized by rapes by Janjaweed militia that are supported by the Government of Sudan. Women are also the targets of opportunistic violence when they venture forth from the relative safety of the camps in Darfur to gather firewood or grass for their animals.

In July 2005 U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice pressured the Government of Sudan to address the problem of violence against women in Darfur, and linked the Sudanese ranking on the U.S. Trafficking in Persons Report to its response to gender-based violence. While this move was controversial within the agencies that work on human trafficking, Bakita’s story shows that violence against women in Darfur and the abductions in south Sudan are related.

Advocate Sarah Martin traveled to south Sudan in March.