Darfur Bar Association: 16 rapes during Dec 25 Sudan demos

The Darfur Bar Association reports that it has received 30 complaints of sexual harassment, including 16 complaints of rape, allegedly perpetrated by security forces in Khartoum during the suppression of the Marches of the Millions in Sudan on Saturday, December 25. Three complaints of rape were laid by young men, and 13 confirmed cases by women.

In an interview with Radio Dabanga that will be broadcast today, Lawyer Nafeesa Hajar, deputy head of the Darfur Bar Association (DBA), says that official complaints have been filed, in part in coordination with the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors.

She also indicated that they received many complaints of severe beatings of women, robberies, and theft of mobile phones and valuables.

She further said that in Khartoum, the security forces detained a large number of minors during the marches, seven of whom were basic school students. They were subjected to severe beatings, which led to the sever injury of two of them in Hillet Koko, and Haj Yousef in Khartoum North; one of them in the head, and the other in the eye with swelling in the legs. A third minor, held in Omdurman, sustained injuries to the chest and lower back, and was taken to a police cell despite his critical health condition, with a threat to his mother.

In El Obeid, capital of North Kordofan, seven basic school students were put on trial for their participation in the demonstrations, however the judge dismissed the complaints against them.

Four women students in Wad Madani, capital of El Gezira, were severely beaten by a police officer.

Hajar estimates that at least 100 people have been detained since Saturday. Members of the Emergency Lawyers are going around the sections in Haj Youssef to find out the total number of detainees there, and to provide aid and assistance to release them.

She pointed out that minors are still being detained in police stations, which were overcrowded with detainees without providing any services, water nor food. She said that the detainees were subjected to severe beatings and thefts, which even included their shoes, so that the lawyers donated to buy plastic slippers to take them to their homes after their release.

‘Frenzied campaign’

As reported by Radio Dabanga this week, A litany of other violations has been reported during the Marches of the Millions in Sudan on Saturday, with forces raiding hospitals and neighbourhoods, in what the Sudanese Professionals Association called “a frenzied campaign”.

The Central Committee of Sudan Doctors reported that at least 235 demonstrators were injured. Most of the injuries, 173, occurred in Khartoum, as Sudanese security forces responded to the anti-coup demonstrations with volleys of live ammunition, tear gas, and stun grenades, as protestors converged on the Republican Palace.