Militiamen rape five women in South Darfur

Five displaced young women were raped for hours near Gireida in South Darfur on Thursday. Two of the victims are currently in the hospital in a critical condition.

The women, aged 20 tot 25 years, were out cultivating a farm in Mashrou, 7km west of Gireida, when militiamen on horses appeared at about 10am. The attackers overpowered the women and raped them from the morning until midnight, at 1am.

A relative of one of the victims told Radio Dabanga that residents from the area started to look for the five displaced women when they discovered that they had not returned from work. They found them in poor mental and physical conditions in the valley, and brought them to the hospital in Gireida for treatment. “They were exhausted,” the relative said.

“The doctor has found traces of beatings on their bodies. Two of the five girls sustained serious injuries.” One of the victims said that the gunmen held them in the valley until 1am on Friday, and that they were beaten severely with sticks and rifle butts after the men had raped them.

The rapes were reported to the police, which has refused to move to the area, the relative said.

According to Radio Dabanga reports in the past twelve months, most of the women who fell victim to rape in Darfur were farming or collecting firewood at the time of the incident. The station received 94 reports of sexual violence in Darfur, in which 181 girls and women became the victims of rape.