By Glenda Emerson is a freelance columnist with the Penticton News
Hundreds of women and girls have been raped by the Janjaweed, the government-backed militia in the Darfur region of Western Sudan. A 17-year-old girl who tried to resist, was raped and then killed, her naked, mutilated body left in the streets of her village.

To date nearly four million people have been adversely affected by the Janjaweed attacks. The death toll is estimated at around 400,000. Villages have been bombed, looted and burned and water supplies poisoned, forcing the inhabitants to flee for their lives.