No human casualties in Central Darfur air raid

The Sudanese Air Force bombed three areas, north and west of Rokoro, in Central Darfur, without causing any casualties among residents, on Wednesday morning. Hillet Ahmed in North Darfur was reportedly shaken again by a sexual assault on women.

A spokesman for the rebel SLM-AW said that the aerial bombardment was aimed at Dar El Aman, Kara, and Solo. According to Mustafa Tambur, a number of animals were killed and some tracts of land were burned. Tambur appealed to the UN Security Council to impose a no-fly zone over Darfur, in order to protect civilians.

In villages north-east of Rokoro, thirteen civilians were killed by shelling, and four by aerial bombardments by the Sudanese Air Force and Armed Forces on Monday. Government forces regained control of Rokoro on Monday afternoon, from the months-long grip of the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Abdel Wahid El Nur. Rokoro is  strategically positioned near the foothills of the East Jebel Marra mountain range.

Militiamen attack village in Tawila

A witness reported that on Tuesday, a group of pro-government militiamen attacked Hillet Ahmed for the second time this week, and sexually assaulted three women. The village, 6km south of Tabit in Tawila locality, also witnessed the rapes of thirteen women on Saturday and Sunday.

“The militiamen entered Hillet Ahmed, and took three women of 17, 19 and 21 years old from inside their homes at gunpoint, to a place outside the village,” the witness claimed. They repeatedly raped them while other militiamen kept guarding the villagers. “They threatened that if anyone dared to come out of his house, he or she would be killed on the spot.”

The villagers have informed the police in Tabit of the incident. The police has not moved to arrest the perpetrators of this assault, nor the militiamen who committed the rapes in the weekend.