Finding Trees in the Desert: Firewood Collection and Alternatives in Darfur

Internally displaced women and girls in Darfur are at risk of rape, harassment and other forms of violence every time they leave the camps to collect firewood. They often have no choice but to take this risk, since there are few other sources of cooking fuel or income available to them. The situation grows more dire every day, as the threat persists and the trees are getting scarcer and the women and girls must go farther from the camps to find wood. Darfur is mostly desert, and the few trees that provided a nearby source of cooking fuel when the camps were first created more than two years ago are long gone.