A distressing report from PHR and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative:
The report — titled “Nowhere To Turn: Failure To Protect, Support and Assure Justice for Darfuri Women” — is based on interviews with 88 female refugees living in Chad’s Farchana refugee camp.
“Many Darfuri women refugees live in a nightmare of memories of past trauma compounded by the constant threat of sexual violence around the camps now,” said Susannah Sirkin, the physician group’s deputy director.
“Women who report being raped are stigmatized, and remain trapped in places of perpetual insecurity. There’s no one to stop the rapes, no one to turn to for justice for past or ongoing crimes, and little psycho-social support to address their prolonged and unimaginable traumas.”
Imagine escaping one conflict zone to then be targeted again. “Perpetual insecurity” doesn’t capture the horror that these women endure.