‘348 cases of rape in Sudan’: Ministry report

Sudan witnessed 348 rape cases during one year, the Ministry of Interior reported, and 43 of these cases were reported in Darfur. While in 2017 alone, the prosecutor in the region reported almost 40 complaints of rape.

The Ministry of Interior issued the report, based on cases from April 2016 to March 2017, this week. There were 92 reported killings in Darfur.

Additionally, 5,441 reports of theft and 1,543 reports of injuries resulting from violent incidents.

The report about rape cases in Darfur follows a report by the Darfur Criminal Prosecutor last month. Then, prosecutor El Fatih Tayfur said 35 complaints of rape were registered in Darfur during the first two and a half months of 2017 alone.

Of the total of 100 complaints of rape of women and children in Darfur in 2016, the Public Prosecutor for Darfur said in January that about 41 cases were being tried by the courts.

The ministry's new report stated that the crimes were carried out by “outlaw movements” and during tribal conflicts.

Casualties

Attacks on villages, tribal clashes and armed robberies in Darfur in the past months caused a score of dead and wounded which is difficult to determine.

On 31 December, a day after a soldier of the Sudan Armed Forces was found dead near Nierteti in Central Darfur, army troops attacked Nierteti town. Two school students were killed by stray bullets, and many people were injured.

El Geneina, capital of West Darfur, witnessed fierce fighting on 5 January, when a group of 17 paramilitaries attacked the home of a man accused of stealing livestock, and shot him dead. Five people who attempted to flee the shooting were killed as well.

Continuing aerial bombardments in Darfur's Jebel Marra caused the death of a number of people, including five family members in Guldo last August.

Three people were killed in a clash between Misseriya and Rizeigait tribesmen in Central Darfur's Um Dukhun in January. Farmers of two different tribes clashed in December, killing at least twelve people in Rahad El Berdi locality.