Darfur Women’s Group: ‘Justice for Zamzam rape victims’

The Darfur Women’s Group has condemned the rape of five displaced women, three of them minors, from Zamzam camp, south of El Fasher on Monday.

In a statement following the Radio Dabanga report on the rape attack last week, the Darfur Women’s Group called on human rights and humanitarian organisations and the Voluntary Repatriation Commission to conduct an independent investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice.

It described what happened as “no less terrible than the mass rape of more than 200 women and girls in Tabit in Tawila in 2014, and that it is a shame that should not be kept silent”.

The statement held the government responsible for the incident, saying the violations are not isolated from events across the country.

As reported by Radio Dabanga last week, five women, including three minors, were subjected to a six-hour rape ordeal at the hands of herdsmen in North Darfur on Monday.

A sheikh of Zamzam camp for the displaced, near to El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, told Radio Dabanga that a group of herders attacked two women, three girls, and two boys while they were collecting straw at Um Hashaba area, 12 kilometres west of Zamzam camp.

The attackers beat the boys, took the women and girls at gunpoint, and raped them repeatedly from 4 pm until 10 pm.