A/HRC/6/19 page 11 states from 3 to 6 September. During the mission, the group held meetings with Government officials, non-governmental organizations and the state committees. Following the mission, the group submitted a report on their findings. 23. On 18 August 2007, the Minister for Justice issued a declaration on the measures for the elimination of violence against women in Darfur. by which the Government condemned violence against women and reaffirmed a zero tolerance policy for such crimes. By letter of 29 October 2007, the group was informed about a code of conduct of the armed forces during armed conflicts (paragraph 18 above) that prohibits, inter alia, violence against women (recommendations 1.2.2 and 1.2.5). The Government also informed the group that it had undertaken to investigate, identify and prosecute perpetrators, to provide legal compensation to victims, and to strengthen its commitment in the implementation of the 2005 national action plan. For instance, the Ministry of Justice sent 21 criminal investigators to the three states of Darfur and opened new prosecutor offices where there had been none to facilitate access to justice. The Government also stated that 40 women police officers had been trained and deployed to Darfur to assist victims of sexual violence and of other forms of gender-based violence. It provided statistics on complaints and verdicts relating to violence against women in North, South and West Darfur and informed the group that reported cases of rape remained low (24 cases for Darfur since the beginning of 2007). 24. United Nations agencies, bodies and programmes operational in Darfur observed that, despite the declaration of 18 August of the Ministry of Justice, the problem of violence against women in Darfur persisted. From June to October, United Nations agencies documented incidents of sexual violence almost every week, totalling 46 victims (45 women and one 10-year-old boy). Owing to logistical problems in gaining access to the field and to a general underreporting known to occur in incidents of sexual and gender-based violence, the actual number of incidents was estimated by United Nations organizations to be significantly higher than what had been actually reported. Several cases of sexual and gender-based violence have been documented in South Darfur, most of which involved internally displaced females from Kalma and Al Salam camps, Umbraida and Gereida. In most of the cases documented, victims failed to report to the police for fear of social stigmatization or because police had failed to act adequately on previous occasions. In the western part of West Darfur, fewer cases were reported in 2007 than for the same period in previous years. In the south-west corridor of West Darfur, the prevalence of incidents of sexual and gender-based violence was much lower than in the northern area of El Geneina. No cases were reported over this period in south West Darfur. In North Darfur, there were a total of 30 documented cases, of which there were 19 rapes, 4 attempted rapes and 7 physical assaults and harassment. In 23 of 30 cases, victims were internally displaced persons. The United Nations did not receive any information on the ground that indicated that female police officers had in fact been deployed to camps of internally displaced persons and police stations in Darfur between June and November 2007. 25. With regard to the recommendation to set up or resume, in consultation with community members, including females, firewood patrols for camps of internally displaced persons and villages (recommendation 1.2.3), the Group was unable to obtain specific and detailed information from the Government or other sources. The Government, however, explained that, in view of the difficulties in deploying women police from Khartoum to Darfur, it planned to recruit local women to the police force.