A prayer for the janjaweed rape babies

This photo from Abu Shouk, Sudan, shows Suad Abdalaziz, 28, who was raped and became pregnant during an attack by the janjaweed in the village of Tawila, holding her 3-day-old baby girl.

There were no smiles, blessings or joy at the birth of Suad's light-skinned girl with ebony eyes and curly black hair. For a family still bleeding from war, the baby was like salt on their wounds.



"My father didn't speak for the entire day," recalled Suad, her voice cracking and her face streaming with tears. "He was not angry at me. He was angry at the janjaweed and the government for giving me this baby."

"'These are the babies of the janjaweed,' said Hassan Abdallah Bakhur, a tribal elder from the town of Tawilla, 40 miles south of here. 'I don't know how we can solve this problem. They and their mothers face a bad future.'



Above, Medina Muhammed, 18, who lives in the Abu Shouk refugee camp in northern Darfur, Sudan, faces a uncertain future after being raped by the janjaweed.

Read the full story at Parkview blog.

Photos courtesy David P. Gilkey, Detroit Free Press