Army, militia raid villages in Darfur’s East Jebel Marra

Two young women were gang-raped and four people were seriously injured in an attack by a joint force of Sudanese army troops, paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and gunmen on six villages in East Jebel Marra on Wednesday.

Villagers told Radio Dabanga that a force of RSF paramilitaries in about 150 vehicles mounted with Dushka machine guns, backed by hundreds of gunmen riding camels and horses stormed the villages of Dubbo El Omda, Dubbo El Madrasa, Bali, Barkarawi, Wadi Ashara, and Mashrou Abu Zeid.

“They abused and beat us, and robbed us of all our belongings and livestock,” one of them said.

Raped, injured

He added that that two young women were gang-raped. “One of them, aged 18, was bleeding all night. She told her family that she did not want to live in this way. This (Thursday) morning, they found her hanging from a tree.”

A large number of villagers sustained injuries. “Omar Yahya Adam (40), Zakiya Saleh Adam (25), and two children, Khalil Ibrahim Saleh (12) and Yagoub Adam Adam (10), were seriously wounded,” another villager reported..

Different directions

Part of the force that swept through the villages came from the direction of El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, via Tawila, the villagers said. Others arrived from the direction of the South Darfur capital of Nyala, by the El Malam road.

“They gathered at Dubbo El Omda at about 6 pm and pillaged it. From there they went to Dubbo El Madrasa and the other villages until Mashrou Abu Zeid.”

The villagers said that after they fled to the neighbouring forests and valleys, the attackers occupied the water sources in the area, and barred the people from using them. They also drove their animals on the farmlands in the area. Large quantities of crops were destroyed.