Aid Group Says Sexual Assaults Soaring in Darfur Camp

An international aid group says sexual assaults have risen dramatically at a large camp for displaced persons in Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
The New York-based International Rescue Committee says more than 200 women have been sexually assaulted in the last five weeks at the Kalma refugee camp. The committee says it is used to hearing about just two to four incidents of sexual assaults at the camp per month.
A committee spokesman says the figures are a sign of deteriorating security in the war-ravaged region. A civil war that began in 2003 has degenerated into chaotic violence that has killed an estimated 200,000 people and displaced two million others.
The United Nations Security Council is reviewing a resolution that calls for a U.N. force to take over peacekeeping duties from an overwhelmed African Union mission. However, Khartoum remains firmly opposed to allowing U.N. troops in Darfur.

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