♦ This week’s news in brief ♦
A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan’s highlights of the news from Darfur and Sudan
A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan's highlights of the news from Darfur and Sudan
Church demolished in Sudan capital: 'We're left without place to pray'
May 9 – 2017 KHARTOUM On Sunday, a church in southern Khartoum’s Soba Aradi was bulldozed to the ground. Police and Land Protection forces, backed by members of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), detained two pastors of the Sudanese Church of Christ for several hours.
Lawyer Dimas James Marajan told Radio Dabanga the same day that pastors Boulus Salih and Nagi Abdallah were released after they forcibly signed a pledge not to photograph the site after the demolition of the church.
The demolition deprived the church community of a place to pray, without any official warning and to the anger of residents. “We used to gather in the Soba church every first day of the new month,” said Reverend Elias Abdelrahim, a priest of the Sudanese Church of Christ, in an interview with Radio Dabanga yesterday. They are seeking a solution to find a temporary place to pray.
Asked about any notifications prior to the demolition of the church, he claimed that they had received no official warning. “The only warning was an unofficial verbal warning from a police sergeant without specifying the date of the removal.”
Lawyers consider the incident a part of a systematic campaign of religious persecution and discrimination against Christians in Sudan. The church demolished in Soba is one of the 27 churches in Khartoum threatened with removal because of the ownership of the land they are built on is disputed.
Nine dead in RSF militia attacks on 12 Darfur villages: witnesses
May 8 – 2017 ZALINGEI At least nine people were reportedly killed, 22 others were injured, and four were raped in attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on western Jebel Marra on Sunday. A Central Darfur official has denied the incidents.
“At about 7 am on Sunday, elements of the RSF driving 41 Land Cruisers loaded with weapons, and others on camels and horses began to attack 12 villages north of Nierteti,” El Shafee Abdallah, the coordinator of the camps for displaced in Central Darfur, told Radio Dabanga.
“Nine villagers were shot dead, four young women were gang-raped, and at least 22 people were injured,” he reported. “Before torching the houses, they stole all the property. They cut and burned even the lemon trees.” He said that the entire population of the villages fled into the mountains.
A Central Darfur government official denied that the attacks by members of the RSF, paramilitaries which are under direct command of President Omar Al Bashir, took place. He told this station: “The Jebel Marra region is currently experiencing security and stability it has not witnessed for more than 13 years.” He pointed to the recovery of the activities at the markets in and around Golo, high on the Jebel Marra mountain.
More news from Radio Dabanga:
Communist newspaper, editor-in-chief fined in Sudan
May 8 – 2017 KHARTOUM On Thursday, the Media and Press Court in Khartoum announced its ruling in a two-year old case of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) against the El Midan newspaper and its former editor-in-chief….
‘Sudanese Pound rate will continue to drop’: economist
May 8 – 2017 KHARTOUM The Pound will continue to fall against the Dollar, causing the inflation to rise further, according to a prominent Sudanese economist. He warned for an increase of school drop outs and fractured families. …
Frenchman abducted in Chad freed in Sudan’s North Darfur
May 7 – 2017 KHARTOUM The French miner who was abducted in eastern Chad about two months ago, was found in Kutum in North Darfur. He was rescued in a raid organised by France, Chad, and Sudan on Saturday…
Darfur women welcome UN report on conflict-related sexual violence
May 7 – 2017 KALMA CAMP Displaced women in Darfur have commended the recently published UN Report of the Secretary-General on conflict-related sexual violence in 2016…
‘USA must delay permanent lifting of sanctions against Sudan’: HRW
May 7 – 2017 NEW YORK Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on Washington to delay the definite lifting of economic sanctions until the human rights situation has improved…
North Darfur: Two abductions in broad daylight
May 5 – 2017 KORMA / KUTUM / NIERTETI Gunmen abducted three people in separate incidents in North Darfur on Friday. A man has been arrested a week after his release in Nierteti, Central Darfur, today…
'15 women reporters abused in Sudan': Journalists' network
May 5 – 2017 KHARTOUM In a new report by the Sudanese Journalists for Human Rights (JHR), reportedly 15 women journalists have been abused by the security apparatus in Sudan in one year's time…
20,000 South Sudanese refugees in new South Kordofan border camp
May 4 – 2017 ABU JUBEIHA Hundreds of South Sudanese refugees have been pouring into a new administrative camp on the border with South Kordofan – latest counts reflect 20,000 people…
Darfur rebels meet Unamid head in Paris
May 3 – 2017 PARIS The new Joint Special Representative for Darfur and head of the UN hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur (Unamid), Jeremiah Mamabolo met with the leaders of the Sudanese opposition Justice…
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