"Protection" is a term often defined within the limits of personal responsibility—we mitigate circumstance, take precautions, use our better judgment to ensure our safety and well-being. The removal of these choices exposes the fragility of our fundamental human dignities and rights.
In Darfur, an environment where law and order often functions as the exception rather than the rule, these rights are regularly challenged and violated. For those denied this protection, each day plays out in a familiar way—seeking little, but risking all.
Internally displaced person (IDP) camps, temporary havens to which thousands of Darfuris have hastily fled, offer a modicum of safety and sustenance amidst spiralling levels of deprivation and insecurity. After the reflex movement of IDPs following the Janjaweed’s genocidal offensives, these camps have been occupied by entire communities that have been victimised, and which are now wholly dependent on the succor of the international community.
Within the environs of the camp, routines are painfully regimented. The collection of water and food, verified by registration and ration cards, emphasises the hand-to-mouth subsistence of the IDP population. While the camps offer a refuge of sorts, they are not resistant to the extremities of the conflict. They are not protected by boundary fences, nor do they have patrolled entry or exit points, and though African Union soldiers maintain a physical presence in many of the camps, they have proven ineffective at countering infiltration and attacks.
One of the most serious consequences of this faltering security is the increased incidence of rape and physical assault upon women. The desperate nature of the situation was evidenced by an extraordinary joint statement made by more than 300 women in Kalma IDP camp, South Darfur, in early August, pleading for greater protection from the outside world to help ease their plight.
According to one investigation, "In addition to the sexual assaults, which include rapes, an additional 200 women and girls say they have been attacked in other ways in the last five weeks, including being beaten, punched, and kicked by assailants who lie in wait a few miles outside Kalma."
The predictability of the attacks has forced the AU to undertake firewood patrols, in order to reduce the risk to women who go outside the camps to gather wood. According to a recent report on firewood collection in both Darfur and neighbouring Ethiopia, "difficult household decisions have been made that select the least-risk strategy—better to