A native of North Darfur, Niemat Ahmadi serves as serves as Founder and President of Darfur Women Action Group. She previously worked as the Director of Global Partnerships for United to End Genocide, which involved promoting greater outreach to civil society organizations worldwide, particularly those that represent the communities affected by genocide and mass atrocities from the regions that UEG is working to address.
Ms. Ahmadi previously worked for the Save Darfur Coalition as a member of the coalition’s policy and government relation team for four years, during which she also promoted the collaboration between the coalition and the Sudanese diaspora within the United States and abroad to empower and amplify their voices. She is a founding member of the Darfuri Leaders Network, a coalition of over twenty U.S.-based Darfuri organizations working to promote peace and security in Darfur. She served as an advisor at the seventh round of inter-Sudanese Darfur peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria 2006.
A veteran human rights advocate, Ms. Ahmadi worked with NGO’s in various fields of emergency and development with a focus on women’s empowerment and capacity-building while in Sudan including Oxfam Great Britain, Intermediate Technology Development Group (the current Practical Action) and the United Nation’s World Food Program. She also served as an executive member of the Darfur Assessment Mission, a consortium of six Sudanese non-governmental organizations in Khartoum – Sudan working on documenting human rights violations in Darfur at the time of the crises. Ms. Ahmadi led the Darfur Diaspora Association of East Africa in Kenya. She also participated in many regional forums, included but not limited to African women conference for peace and security, and Sudanese women forum for peace.
While in college, Niemat established Darfur call for private education that seeks scholarship and raise funds to support the education of poor Darfurian students. She was also a founding member of the Darfur Student Association at Ahfad University which seeks to secure scholarships and helps students from Darfur to be granted tuition waivers. Ms. Ahmadi earned an M.S. in Sustainable Development and a B.A. in Psychology and Pre-school Education, from Ahfad University for Women in Khartoum. She received the Ford Motor Company international fellowship for leadership course, at Columbia University, NY and the American University summer Professional Program on Women, Peace and Security.
Because of her role in helping the victims and being vocal about massive human rights abuses and the genocide in Darfur, she was forced to leave the country after two attempts on her life. She stayed in Kenya for two years then arrived to the U.S. in March 2007.
In her advocacy work, Niemat testified about the use of rape as weapon of war before UN SC in NY, UN Human rights council UNHRC in Geneva and many other testimonies, and collaborated with the Coalition for the ICC presenting victim’s perspective for Justice in Darfur. She also addressed the UN Security Council, on June 17, 2008 to testify on the escalation of violence against Darfuris in Darfur and Khartoum following May 10th attack. On the 17th of July, 2008 she addressed the UNSC presenting the Darfuri victims perspective for justice in Darfur. She also testified on the use of rape in Darfur as weapon of war before the senate foreign relations committee on 13th of may 2009.
As a Darfuri expert, she participated with Physicians for Human Rights in developing principles and guidelines for the reparations of Darfurian victims. Beside her work with the Coalition, she is working on mobilizing the Sudanese Diaspora to organize, network and encourage them to create their own organizations and provide them with advice and facilitation so that they can be able to contribute to the lasting and peaceful settlement of the Darfur conflict and Sudan’s multiple crises conflict.
She has been recognized by former President George W. Bush as one of the 8 global human rights fighters for freedom of their people of the year, along with representative from other 7 countries on July 24th 2008, in a meeting before his freedom speech.