Activists on Wednesday accused Sudan’s army and allied militias of abducting people during the Darfur conflict and forcing them into unpaid work and ”sex slavery”.
Sudan’s government dismissed the allegations as ”naive”, saying rebel factions were behind most abductions in the remote region. The army said the report did not deserve a comment.
The Darfur Consortium, an umbrella organisation for more than 50 campaign groups, said it had collected the first detailed evidence of soldiers and militias seizing people during the fighting.
The report said researchers had identified about 100 abductions, most of them from 2003 to 2006. But a spokesperson, who asked not to be named, estimated thousands of abductions had taken place throughout the fighting.
International experts say 200 000 people have died and more than 2,5-million been driven from their homes since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government in 2003, accusing it of neglecting the remote western region.
Khartoum mobilised mostly Arab militias to crush the revolt. It denies accusations that its fighters committed widespread atrocities during the counter-insurgency and says 10 000 have died in the conflict.
The Darfur Consortium report said government soldiers and Janjaweed had abducted women in raids on villages and displacement camps, and subjected them to rape, forced marriage and unpaid domestic labour.
It said militias had also seized young men and made them work on farmland taken from villagers during the conflict.
Most of the abducted people were from ”the Fur, Massaliet, Zagawa and other non-Arabic speaking ethnic groups in Darfur”, the report added.
Sudan rejected the accusations.
”The report is very naive and reflects the ignorance of its authors. The government does not condone abductions and it is not government policy,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ali al-Sadig.
”We are working hard to stop such violations. The rebel factions are mostly to blame for abductions in Darfur.”
Darfur’s powerful rebel Justice and Equality Movement has denied accusations from Khartoum and some development groups that it used child soldiers from Darfur villages in its May attack on Khartoum. — Reuters