Two women shot, two more raped in Darfur

Two women were shot dead, and a woman and girl were raped in two separate incidents in Darfur on Monday morning.

A listener told Radio Dabanga that four armed men, wearing military uniforms and riding camels, shot Halima Ibrahim Juma (35) and Sadia Adam Yagoub (40) five kilometres southeast of the Jebel Marra mountains. They both died on the spot.

The same gunmen intercepted a 14-year-old girl and a 21-year-old woman, six kilometres west of Katur in Tawila locality, near Burra. They took turns raping them. The listener said that the health condition of both victims is “very serious, in particular the young girl is in a bad shape”. They are receiving traditional treatment.

In the area popularly known as East Jebel Marra, two young women in Katur were raped on 3 January. Gumen also raped three women near Khazun Tunjur on 10 January.

Traditional treatment

Speaking to Radio Dabanga in January, Doctor Jamal Mohamed Abdelmala, who has worked as a health provider in camps for displaced people in Darfur since 2004, said that Jebel Marra is one of the worst areas to live in Sudan.

He visited eastern Jebel Marra in November and December 2015. “The people suffer a lot there. The most important issue is that there are no health services in East Jebel Marra. There are too few vehicles and no ambulances to take severely sick people to the cities. For this reason sick people in Jebel Marra often receive traditional treatment first. But when their situation is deteriorated, they arrive too late in the cities.”