Sudanese doctor describes “hell on earth” in Darfur

Halima Bashir has little sympathy for her namesake, Field Marshal Omer el Bashir, who was last week indicted by the International Criminal Court on 10 counts of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. She hopes that Sudan’s president “suffers the same fate as Saddam Hussein,” she said, adding: “Here I am speaking not as a doctor but as a victim.”

Dr Bashir knows better than almost anyone the horror of the crimes committed in Darfur. She not only witnessed them first hand and treated the survivors but was arrested and gang raped by members of the security forces for speaking out against them.

She has now found refuge in London and the courage to write about her ordeal in her new book, Tears of the Desert, in which …