Hamida Mohamed, Sudan "I am here because of the war"

My name is Hamida Mohamed [true name withheld on request]. I'm 33 years old, married and have six children. My eldest son is 18 years old.

I live in El Salaam camp [for internally displaced persons - population 22,500] on the outskirts of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.

I am here because of the war. There was an attack by the Janjawid [the government-allied militia who have been accused of terrorising the region's non-Arab tribes] on Tawila [a town west of El Fasher] in November 2004.

They destroyed houses, raped women. Many people died, but I don't know how many, because everybody was running.

One of my friends had five people slaughtered in her house. Another friend, from a nearby village, helped to bury 38 bodies.

I came to El Fasher on foot - it took me two days.

We first went to El Fasher park and stayed there for three months. The people from El Fasher helped us and gave us food. Later, NGOs helped too.

Nobody has gone back to cultivate; people who go back will be shot.

Peace will only be possible when there is security in the villages. We need to rebuild our villages, we need health and education, and we want compensation for what has been taken from us.

Before I go to sleep, I like to imagine joining my friends and neigbours and going out into the field to collect things and cultivate the land. But when I dream, I see war, running people, air strikes and crying children.

Some of my friends have been raped. If there are babies, they plan to raise the child with love, as their own.

It is a bad situation. I don't think I can forgive; maybe in the next life.

(Adam Ahmed Abdellah - friend)

I came to El Salaam after the Sudanese military and Janjawid militia attacked my village of Halla, near Tawila, on 3 February 2005.

They attacked the village from six in the morning until eight o'clock at night. They committed every type of crime: they burned, looted, killed and raped.

The next day, the Janjawid returned. They forced us to dig up the graves of people who had been killed the day before and then put them back again, as a punishment - just to make it worse.

It was as if they were being killed twice. It is a scar on my heart.