Darfur Sexual Abuse Unit Established

Darfur peacekeeping mission UNAMID plans to create a unit which will be “responsible for monitoring and reporting on investigations of crimes committed against women and children”.
UNAMID hopes that the unit will aid in “bringing justice to the victims”.
Rape has been used as a weapon of war in Darfur – physically and emotionally scarring countless innocent females. [...]

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Protecting Darfur’s Women

African Union – UN hybrid peacekeeping mission UNAMID has teamed up with the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) to push a new initiative aimed at empowering the women of Darfur.
Efforts will go towards achieving gender equality – both politically and economically – and putting an end to sexual and gender-based violence.
It is important for us [...]

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Fire at UNAMID Headquarters

Last night, a fire broke out at UNAMID’s headquarters in Darfur.
No injuries were reported. However, damages to the peacekeeping mission’s communication equipment, offices, and laboratory total an estimated $5 million.
An investigation will be held to determine whether the fire was the result of a short circuit or of something else. Arson is not suspected.

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UNAMID Delivers Exams to Darfur Schools

News coming out of Darfur has been pretty dire recently (and rightly so given the current situation). With story after story of violence and suffering, it is hard to imagine that any “good” is taking place in the region.
However, there is “good” in Darfur. Consider this -
Today, UNAMID airlifted examination supplies to various secondary schools [...]

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Crime plagues lives of Darfur refugees

Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra joined a Unamid team on patrol in South Darfur and sent this special report.

In the meantime, Gabriel Stauring, Katie-Jay Scott, Yuen-Lin Tan from Stop Genocide Now are on their way to the refugee camps on the Chad – Sudan border.  Here is their latest report.
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Darfur Peacekeepers Shot

Four UNAMID peacekeepers operating in Darfur were shot yesterday by “unknown armed men”.
The number of attacks against UNAMID peacekeepers in 2009 now exceeds that for 2008 – and it’s only March!
This was the first incident since last week’s ICC indictment of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir.
Meanwhile, the US embassy in Khartoum has announced that it is [...]

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UN: Peacekeepers Will Stay

Today, the chief of UN peacekeeping operations announced that UNAMID peacekeepers will remain in Darfur even if the ICC issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir on March 4th, as expected.
The Government would assume its full duty of protecting UN missions in Sudan against any negative impact that may result from the ICC’s [...]

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