New settlers arrive in North Darfur’s Tawila, rape four

On Thursday and Friday, hundreds of new settlers arrived in North Darfur's Tawila locality, locally called eastern Jebel Marra. On both days, four women were raped in another wave of abuses against Darfuri farmers in the area.

Speaking to Radio Dabanga a formerly displaced farmer who returned with her family to cultivate their lands in Tawila, reported that “hundreds of people riding in 25 vehicles and on camels arrived from the south on Thursday and Friday, and started occupying our lands and threatening the farmers.

“Many displaced who returned from the Shangil Tobaya and Tawila camps to work on their farms during the current rainy season, have left again.”

She said that "a group of those militiamen" gang raped three women at their farms east of Debba Neira village on Thursday.

“The second rape happened on Friday, when four militia members alternately raped a woman on her farm north of Dawaa village, southeast of Tabit. They also stole four of her goats.”

On 19 June, Radio Dabanga reported that thousands of settlers have taken plots in abandoned areas in Tawila The newcomers were identified by local pastoralists as members of Arab militias and migrants from Chad, Mali and Niger. Several eyewitnesses told Radio Dabanga that they spotted paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) roaming around to protect the new inhabitants.

More than 100,000 people in Tawila, mainly Fur, abandoned their homes after government bombardments and attacks by the RSF on their villages earlier this year.