♦ This week’s news in brief ♦
A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan’s highlights of the news from Darfur and Sudan
A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan's highlights of the news from Darfur and Sudan
♦ Renewed fighting between Sudan forces, rebels reaches villages
May 29 – 2017 KUTUM Both the Sudanese government and members of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Minawi (SLM-MM) and the SLM-Transitional Council claim victory following new fierce fighting in North Darfur’s Kutum on Sunday. The violence reached inhabitants of Ein Siro, north-west of Kutum, where Rapid Support Forces (RSF) members raided villages early Sunday morning. Five people, including a child, were killed, a local community leader reported to Radio Dabanga. Calling from the safety of the mountains, he explained that the many villagers who have fled to the mountains cannot descend because the militias are still deployed there. “From the mountain we can see the attackers. They are pillaging our solar panels, medical tools, and livestock.”
The rebel SLM groups released a statement later that day, claiming the destruction of more than 13 Land Cruisers of the Sudanese army. The army and RSF stated that they managed to defeat the holdout rebel movements.
A number of rebel fighters, however, have been arrested, including Nimir Abdelrahman, the leader of SLM-TC, and Ahmed Hussein, the spokesman for SLM-MM. They were “shown to the public” in the stadium of Nyala.
Exact numbers of the casualties on both sides are not yet ascertained. In the meantime, lawyers decried the public statement of East Darfur Governor Anas Omar Fadlelmoula, who said the bodies of slain rebel fighters should not be buried but left in the open.
♦ Death sentence for rape, murder of girl in South Darfur city
May 30 – 2017 NYALA The Children's Court in Nyala sentenced the rapist and killer of a six-year-old girl to death by hanging. The victim was found tied-down in his shop, and was suffocated with napkins and biscuits.
The 23-year-old convict is a shopkeeper in El Wehda district named Mustafa, who was caught in the act on Wednesday morning 17 May. A policeman summarised for the court that the six-year-old girl, who was sent by her parents to buy milk nearby, soon was reported missing by her father. He went searching for her with neighbours and suspected her to be in a closed shop. After the police broke the doors for an inspection, the child’s dead body was found in the middle of the shop. The suspect was hiding under the shop table holding a knife.
Investigations revealed that the victim arrived to the shop of the defendant, who forcibly entered her into the shop and closed the door. He tied her hands behind her neck, tied her to a chair, and put a box load of biscuits and paper napkins down her throat. Her mouth was closed with a cloth. The perpetrator raped the victim using Vaseline.
A doctor confirmed that the cause of death was suffocation. His autopsy turned out that the girl's hymen and two front teeth were broken, which causes death within five seconds to a girl of her age, the doctor said.
As soon as the news broke on 17 May, people gathered in the streets of the city to hold protests against the murder. The case has gathered widespread attention since, and the courtroom yesterday was filled with – besides the parents of the victim – prosecutors, members of child protection offices, representatives of Unamid, and journalists.
More news from Radio Dabanga:
Barrel bombs, abduction in Darfur's Jebel Marra
May 30 – 2017 FANGA / TAWILA Four bombs were dropped on East Jebel Marra on Monday, killing a number of livestock. Gunmen abducted six people at the entrance of a village on Saturday…
Cholera cases 'transferred to Khartoum': doctors
May 30 – 2017 KHARTOUM / RABAK Patients with cholera, or 'acute watery diarrhoea', are reportedly being transferred to the capital of Sudan. The cases come from White Nile state, where the disease…
Sudan, UNDP cooperate on ‘Prevention of Violent Extremism’
May 29 – 2017 KHARTOUM UPDATED – The United Nations Development Programme in Sudan (UNDP) and the Sudan National Commission for Counter-Terrorism (SNCCT) signed a Memorandum of…
US doctor in South Kordofan receives Aurora Prize
May 29 – 2017 YEREVAN The $1 million Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity of 2017 was awarded to Dr Tom Catena, a Catholic physician from New York who has saved thousands of live in Sudan’s war-ravaged…
Family of Dr Mudawi breaks fast near prison
May 29 – 2017 KHARTOUM The family of a well-known human rights defender detained in Kober Prison in Khartoum North have taken their first Ramadan breakfast on the street near the prison.The family…
Sanctions relief: Sudan’s US Embassy ‘still unsure of White House response’
May 28 – 2017 KHARTOUM The US Chargé d’Affaires at the Embassy in Sudan cannot say how the Trump administration will deal with the decision to lift the trade sanctions on Khartoum.“I honestly do not know how…
Arrests as RSF clamp down in North Darfur
May 25 – 2017 EL FASHER The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia has arrested at least seven people at the areas of Muzbad and Arori in Um Baru and Karnoi localities on charges of communicating with the armed…
Bereft Sudanese farmers call for swift action on Ethiopian border
May 25 – 2017 EL FASHANGA The farmers on Sudan’s eastern border in El Fashaga area in El Gedaref refute statements of state Governor Mirghani Saleh regarding the return of all agricultural land in the border strip…
Five Darfuri students held in Omdurman police cells
May 25 – 2017 OMDURMAN Five Darfuri students from El Zaeem El Azhari University have been in custody for a week at Wad Nubawi police station in Omdurman on charges of damaging university property…
Troops deployed as 50+die in Central Darfur tribal clashes
May 25 – 2017 UM DUKHUN Security forces were mobilised to separate warring members of the Misseriya and Salamat tribes in Um Dukhun this week, after at least 50 people died in renewed clashes on Monday…
12 dead, homes destroyed in South Darfur ammo dump blast
May 24 – 2017 NYALA At least 12 people have died, 18 others injured, and hundreds of homes destroyed after catastrophic explosions rocked an ammunition storage facility in the South Darfur capital of Nyala…
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