A doctor in the lawless region of Sudan, witnessed the atrocities of the Janjaweed; and then became a victim of the militia’s terrible revenge
"It was barely two months since the ministry of health had transferred me to this village, Mazkhabad, in the remote north of Darfur. Although I hadn’t finished my medical training and was reluctant to go, I was at least among my own people, the Zaghawa. But there was a war on between the African Zaghawa and the Janjaweed Arab militia. Within a month of my arrival wounded Zaghawa fighters had started coming to the clinic. The local Arab police chief had threatened me in a rage when I’d refused to name them.
And now this. I took the first of the little girls and laid her bloodied form on the bed. She’d been hit in the face with a blunt instrument — probably a rifle butt — and needed stitches. But there were other, more urgent priorities. I checked her eyes: they were dead and glazed with shock. Unseeing. But at least she was still conscious. I felt for her pulse: it was racing and fearful. Yet it was strong. She would live — as long as I could stop the bleeding.
As gently as I could, I tried to prise apart her shaking, bloodied knees. The soft child’s skin of her thighs was crisscrossed with cut marks, as if a pack of wild animals had been clawing at her. I felt her body stiffen, her leg muscles tightening and resisting. Her wailing rose to a terrified scream.
“I’m sorry, little sister, but I have to look. It’s Dr Halima, from the medical clinic. I have to look, I have to . . . But I won’t hurt you or do anything nasty, I promise.”
I glanced around. The room was seething with traumatised girls and grieving parents. The youngest girl was seven, the oldest 13. They had been repeatedly attacked with unimaginably brutal sexual violence.
It was early evening by the time I had finished stitching up the last of them. More than 40 girls had been brought to the clinic, but I knew there were more rape victims than that. In some cases their parents were so ashamed that they had taken their daughters home, and would be treating them privately with traditional cures. In that way they hoped to keep the violation of their loved ones secret."