Six women raped in Darfur’s Shangil Tobaya

Six women, including a girl, have been raped in three separate events in the vicinity of Shangil Tobaya, North Darfur. The attackers sparked panic among the villagers when they raided the market.

Witnesses told Radio Dabanga that 17 buses arrived from El Fasher in Shangil Tobaya on Wednesday evening. “They carried fighters of Sudanese pro-government militias and others, who wore unfamiliar clothes, of foreign armed movements,” one of them claimed.

Upon their arrival, several gunmen started to empty their guns into the air, causing panic among the residents. Others went to Triko district in Shangil Tobaya, where they assaulted four women in their homes and raped them. “The firing into the air continued from 8pm until Thursday morning.”

That morning, the militants robbed shops in the market of Shangil Tobaya and stole a number of mobile phones from residents. The forces left for Nyala on Thursday afternoon.

At the Kalogoli mountain, 10km northwest of Shangil Tobaya, a gunman in military uniform attacked a 37-year-old woman and raped her. Afterwards they took her donkey and donkey cart. The woman has reported the incident to the local police and the peacekeeping mission Unamid, a relative told this station.

An armed men attacked two girls 1 km west of Shaddad camp in Shangil Tobaya on Sunday. One of them managed to escape while the gunman raped the other 15-year-old girl. “She hit the rapist after he was finished,” a relative of the victim told Radio Dabanga.

“Some people from Shaddad arrived at the scene, caught him, and brought him to the police station in Shangil Tobaya.”

The same day Radio Dabanga received the report that two displaced girls were raped at gunpoint by gunmen near Shaddad camp.