Darfuri refugee raped, sister shot by gunmen in eastern Chad

A young Darfuri refugee was raped, and her sister shot by unknown gunmen near the Métché refugee camp in eastern Chad on Wednesday. Refugees complain about ‘almost daily attacks by armed bandits on motorcycles’.

The Sudanese Refugees Voice in eastern Chad reported yesterday that gunmen wearing civilian clothes raped 18-year-old S. B. and shot her older sister H. B. east of the Métché refugee camp on Wednesday.

The sisters had left the camp to collect firewood in the nearby forest when the men intercepted them. When H. B. protested, she was shot in the leg. Her sister was raped. After they were found, the victims were taken to a clinic run by Médecins Sans Frontières-Spain in the camp.

It happens “almost daily” that unknown armed bandits riding on motorcycles attack refugees on the road between Métché camp and Adré town, the Sudanese Refugees Voice coordination committee said in its report.

Earlier this week, a group of gunmen in civilian clothes opened fire on a passenger vehicle, coming from Adré, near the camp. None of the passengers was injured. Camp sheikhs immediately informed the security authorities, “but they did not take any action, while the perpetrators fled to the northern part of the camp,” the coordination committee stated.

The Sudanese Refugees Voice called on the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and international human rights organisations “to take urgent and strict measures to preserve the dignity of refugees”.

It appealed to the Chadian authorities “to issue a courageous decision to stop the entry of motorcycles into the refugee camps” and on the refugees themselves “to exercise self-control, observe and document on the incidents, and report them to human rights organisations”.

The Displacement Tracking Matrix of the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported on August 22 that an estimated 910,000 people, Darfuri and Chadian returnees, have crossed into Chad since war broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and its paramilitary counterpart, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) more than 16 months ago.

IOM expects this number to rise to 240,000 until the end of this year, because of the ongoing conflict and food insecurity in Darfur.

The numbers of people fleeing Darfur may decrease in the coming months as the Sudanese belligerents a week ago agreed to provide safe and unhindered humanitarian access through two key arteries – the western border crossing in Darfur at Adré and the northern Ed Debba route from Port Sudan. On August 26, more than 30 aid trucks entered West Darfur through the Adré border crossing.

Unfortunately, humanitarian convoys bound for Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan, especially via the Adré crossing, currently face the challenge of damage to essential infrastructure following unusually heavy rains in the country.