Full extent of Sudan gang-rape problem unknown

KUTUM, Sudan -- Khadija Adam is not sure how old she is, but the hospital nurse guesses between 9 and 11. Khadija does know she was gang raped by Arab militiamen.

Older girls usually manage to escape the marauders, but the younger ones are caught, says Hawa, head nurse at the only hospital in the west Sudan town of Kutum, which has been taking in one to four victims of gang rape a week since July. Health officials said they believe the admissions are probably the tip of the iceberg in a vast region where few people ever visit a hospital and a sense of shame deters families from bringing in their daughters.

Kutum lies in the Darfur region, where war broke out last year between government forces and rebels reacting to the ravages of Arab militiamen allegedly backed by Khartoum.

The mounted militiamen, known as ''janjaweed," have been driving African farmers and their families out of their villages in the region in what international organizations have called ethnic cleansing. The Khartoum government says they are outlaws.

A common pattern is that the janjaweed ride into a village, kill men of fighting age, rape the girls, loot any property they find, then burn down the grass huts in which the villagers live. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced, and more than 100,000 have fled across the border into neighboring Chad.

Nurse Hawa, who did not give her full name, said the number of rapes has been increasing in recent months.

''Since last July we have seen between one and four rape cases a week . . . Most are gang rape -- three to four men raping at once. Most of the cases we see are between 11 and 14" years old, she added.

The militiamen dump the victims along roadsides or in open country where passersby find them and bring them to the hospital.

Khadija's 13-year-old sister, Arasa, is also in the hospital, to treat a leg broken suffered during a failed rape attempt.

''They [the fighters] said they were going to make me into a woman. When I didn't come with them they broke my leg," she said from the ward where she has been for nearly two months.

The human rights group Amnesty International says it has reports of rape in Darfur, but adds that the full extent of the problem is unknown because victims risk being shunned in the region's traditional society.

Hawa says it is difficult to tell which side is responsible.

''Those who rape you wear fatigues and those who protect you wear fatigues. We don't know anymore who to run from and who to run to."

The government forces and the rebels wear military fatigues. Janjaweed wear less formal military-style clothing. One aid worker said it remained difficult to get a full picture of the problem.

''We won't know the magnitude of this until we have complete access" for aid organizations, she said. Related problems include the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases and the long-term effects on the victims and the area's social fabric.

Doctors and nurses try to lessen the trauma despite meager resources. If the rape occurred within 72 hours of hospital admission, doctors administer high doses of contraceptives to reduce the chances of pregnancy.

''As long as they don't get pregnant, we tell them that they still have a future. We try to tell them that nothing has changed," says Hawa.