Activists: West Darfur Women Suffer Depression After Deadly Fighting

KHARTOUM, SUDAN - Hundreds of women displaced by recent inter-communal fighting in the Al Geneina town of West Darfur are suffering from anxiety and depression as they shoulder the responsibility of caring for their families without husbands, say women's rights activists in Sudan's western region. 

The fighting that erupted in April left more than 200 people dead and a little more than 200 others wounded.  Thousands of families have been sheltering in government buildings, schools and mosques in overcrowded conditions with limited access to proper sanitation, according to Sumeya Musa, a women's advocate with the local nongovernmental organization, Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa.     "Some don't have a place to sleep, some lose their job and property and everything. Some are suffering from social pressure, raising children alone, taking care of elderly and sick people and yet they don't earn anything for life, so these economic and social pressures have really affected their lives," Musa told VOA's South Sudan in Focus program.