Four gang-raped in North Darfur’s Tawila locality

On Saturday evening, four women were gang-raped in the area of Karafallah village, about 15 kilometres west of Tabit in Tawila locality.

“16 masked militiamen riding camels ambushed a group of 12 people at the Karafallah water well,” a villager reported to Radio Dabanga. “They threatened them, after which they took four of the women, aged 24, 21, 19, and 18, and raped them alternately.”

The attack was reported to the army garrison and the Unamid base in Tabit. “They did not move,” the source said.

He holds the Commissioner of Tawila locality accountable for the violence in the locality. “The Commissioner is entirely incapable of putting an end to the militia attacks and protecting the people.

Mass rape

Last year, Tabit was the scene of a mass rape. Between 30 October and 1 November army forces sexually assaulted more than 200 women and girls in the village. They said that they had been ordered to do so in their search for a missing soldier.

Witnesses told Human Rights Watch (HRW) that the soldiers detained and abused the men of Tabit en masse during two nights, while others raped the women and girls in their homes.

The Sudanese government has categorically denied the incident, and barred Unamid and other organisations access to Tabit to investigate what happened. Government officials, military commanders and traditional leaders have threatened, detained, and tortured residents of Tabit to prevent them from speaking out, HRW stated in its February 2015 report Mass Rape in North Darfur, Sudanese Army Attacks against Civilians in Tabit.