Forcing Aid Workers Out

Aid workers are increasingly being targeted by Sudanese oficials in Darfur:

Aid workers have described how they watched helplessly as Sudanese police officers dragged a female United Nations worker from an aid agency compound in Darfur and subjected her to a vicious sexual attack.

Staff say they feared for their lives when armed police raided their compound in Nyala, dragging one European woman out into the street by her hair and savagely beating several other international staff before arresting a total of 20 UN, aid agency and African Union staff.

The attack, the latest in a series of assaults on international aid workers, has forced relief agencies to consider pulling out of the troubled region. [...]

The attack comes amid growing concern over the level of violence directed at aid workers.

In December, an international staff member working for a French aid agency was raped, others were beaten and one was subjected to a mock execution in the town of Gereida in south Darfur. Another international worker suffered a serious sexual assault in September.

Sudanese government-backed militias have used rape as a weapon against women in Darfur since the start of their campaign of ethnic cleansing in 2003. In December, The Sunday Telegraph revealed how a doctor had been gang-raped for protesting about the rape of more than 40 schoolgirls.

Now aid agencies say the deteriorating security situation for the remaining international relief workers could force their withdrawal.