Girl raped by herder in North Darfur

A 14-year-old girl was raped by a herdsman near Kutum in North Darfur on Friday.

Activist Yahya Khamis told Radio Dabanga that a herder named Tajeldin Abdelhamid intercepted a group of five young women and girls who were on their way to collect firewood near Teemteem village, five kilometres east of Kutum.

“He seized one of the girls by force and raped her,” he said. “The others escaped and informed people in the neighbourhood, who formed a search posse and managed to grab the culprit and handed him to Kutum police station.”

The source added that the residents of Teemteem village went out in a large demonstration on Friday, condemning the rapes in the neighbourhood, and demanding the authorities to intervene and immediately stop these abuses.

Statistics presented by leaders of Zamzam camp in North Darfur in mid-February this year show 18 cases of rape and five deaths between the end of 2018 and February 14, in addition to the injury of dozens of displaced people, and the theft of large amounts of money and thousands of livestock.