A/HRC/6/19 page 10 people. In addition to these large-scale attacks, civilians in Darfur, in particular internally displaced persons, are reportedly vulnerable to individual attacks involving physical assault, harassment, intimidation and extortion. These incidents, which have occurred mainly outside camps of internally displaced persons, have restricted the movement of civilians and severely disrupted their daily life. Despite some action taken by the Government to prevent and protect the civilian population against attacks (recommendation 1.1.3), the civilian population in Darfur reportedly remained largely unprotected against such attacks. 20. The Government informed the group of experts of a plan to control and disarm the militia, in cooperation with the United Nations and the African Union Mission in the Sudan (AMIS), but indicated that, owing to the lack of funds and an environment in Darfur that was not conducive to such steps as long as the conflict continued, no progress had been made. It did not provide information about the vetting of security forces, such as the Popular Defence Forces, the Border Intelligence Guard, the Central Reserve Police, the Popular Police or the Nomadic Police, to exclude members who had committed serious human rights violations and bring them to justice (recommendation 1.1.2). 21. With regard to the recommendation to set up, in consultation with the communities concerned, effective regular police patrols to protect vulnerable populations in Darfur, supported by AMIS, including around camps of internally displaced persons and villages, the Government referred to a memorandum of understanding between the Sudanese Ministry of the Interior and the African Union mission regarding a plan to provide security for the camps, whereby internal camp security would be provided by the Sudanese police, while the African Union mission would secure and protect the areas outside the camps. It also informed the group of experts that the following had been deployed: in North Darfur: 142 officers and 6,353 men of other ranks, securing 20 displaced persons’ camps; in South Darfur: 119 officers and 6,148 men of other ranks, securing 25 displaced persons’ camps; and in West Darfur: 114 officers and 5,413 members of other ranks, securing 28 displaced persons’ camps (recommendation 1.1.5). The group of experts did not receive specific and detailed information from the Government or other sources on where and how often patrols were carried out and whether they had a positive impact on the number of attacks in the areas patrolled. 2. Protection of women against violence 22. The existing state committees to combat violence against women play a potentially important role in providing better protection of women against violence. The Government informed the group that a national action plan had been published and that all three state committees had drafted a workplan to combat violence against women, but it did not provide copies of the work plan of the Northern and Western Darfur committees (recommendations 1.2.1 and 1.2.4). The group of experts received additional information on 30 October that plans of action had been set for the state committees in Darfur for the next six months (July-December 2007), focusing mainly on capacity-building workshops. United Nations agencies, bodies and programmes operational in Darfur reported that the South Darfur and North Darfur state committees had adopted their workplans. The South Darfur state committee has reportedly been meeting on a regular basis while the other two committees have not. A group drawn from the joint task force for evaluating the state committees, composed of the Chair, two members of the Advisory Council for Human Rights, and representatives of the Ministry of the Interior and UNMIS Gender and Human Rights, conducted a mission to the three Darfur