♦ News you might have missed this week ♦

A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan's highlights of the news from Darfur and Sudan

♦ 49 women raped in Tabit, Darfur, over the past year

November 3 – 2015 DARFUR / LONDON Last Saturday marked one year after Tabit in North Darfur witnessed a mass rape of more than 200 girls and women. At least 49 women have been raped in the vicinity of the village over the past year, according to Radio Dabanga reports. In Darfur, rapes largely occur without being reported to the police, and with low conviction rates for offenders, according to an investigation of Waging Peace (U.K.).

Since November last year, Radio Dabanga has received 94 reports of sexual violence from the whole region of Darfur, in which 181 girls and women became the victims of rape. 49 of them were raped in and around Tabit, often by militiamen. The station received the most reports of rape (32) from the East Jebel Marra area, in comparison to all cases reported from the five Darfur states. Only 12 cases of rape, however, were filed by the police in Darfur this year, according to the Minister of Interior Affairs, Esmat Abdelrahman, in a report to the national Parliament on Tuesday 27 October. 

But sources have informed Radio Dabanga that local police in Darfur often refuse to file reported rape cases. In a new report on rape in Darfur, the UK-based Waging Peace organisation confirmed on Tuesday that less than a quarter of all the cases it documented (77) were reported to the police and Unamid officially. The majority of the reports was not acted on. In two of the cases, the perpetrators were prosecuted and jailed. Most of the victims speaking to Waging Peace said that they did not receive the physical or psychological medical support they required.

Almost two-thirds of the interviewed victims report being raped upon leaving the zones and camps for displaced people that are under the control of African Union-United Nations peacekeepers, Unamid. Waging Peace called on the peacekeeping mission to continue its work in Darfur and increase the number and scope of patrols, in a way to protect displaced women going out of the camps.

♦ 'Rampant' Dengue and haemorrhagic fever in Darfur

November 2 – 2015 KHARTOUM / EL GENEINA The Federal Ministry of Health reported 203 confirmed cases of Dengue fever in Darfur states as of Monday. 83 people reportedly died in West Darfur state. The director of the Ministry's epidemiology department, Babiker Elmakbul pointed out to Radio Dabanga that the average of daily reported cases was reduced to 2 to 4 cases per day. He claimed, however, that the spread of infections has reached “an epidemic stage”: “Two deaths were recorded over the past week, they were diagnosed for Dengue fever and malaria.”

A team of international experts of the World Health Organization (WHO) has arrived in Khartoum on Sunday, to assess the health situation and medical needs in Darfur states. One week ago, the Sudanese Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the outbreak of viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF) in Darfur and deployed a team to start infection control measures.

The West Darfur Minister of Health, Hisham Nurain, reported a high number of fatal and confirmed Dengue cases: 83 people have died from Dengue fever in the state. Most of them (75) died in Kereinik locality. The number of confirmed and suspected Dengue cases has risen to 127 people.

Eight other news highlights:

Blue Nile rebels ambush Sudan's RSF

November 3 – 2015 ED DAMAZIN The rebel SPLM-N announced the killing and wounding of a number of Rapid Support Forces in an ambush between Banet and Agadi, 15 kilometres south of Ed Damazin in…

Tracts of Darfur farmland damaged by livestock

November 2 – 2015 GARSILA / ZALINGEI / MERSHING / KUTUM Herders continued driving their cattle and camels onto farms in Central, South, and North Darfur over the weekend. The grazing damaged vast tracts of farmland. Farmers…

First Darfur students on trial in Omdurman

November 2 – 2015 OMDURMAN On Sunday, the Criminal Court of North Omdurman began the first trial of nine Darfuri students of the Holy Koran University. The students face various charges related to disturbing the public…

Sudan, WHO confirm outbreak of haemorrhagic fever in Darfur

October 30 – 2015 KHARTOUM The Sudanese Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the outbreak of viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF) in Darfur on Tuesday. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs…

Ethiopian gunmen occupy eastern Sudanese farms

October 30 – 2015 EL GEDAREF In a recent wave of violence in El Gedaref state, at least 28 Sudanese farmers living along the Sudanese-Ethiopian border were killed and injured by Ethiopian gunmen. Ethiopian farmers are now cultivating…

Herders, army clash in Sirba, West Darfur

October 29 – 2015 SIRBA A herder was killed in a clash between army soldiers and militant herders in Sirba locality on Tuesday. “On Tuesday afternoon, armed herders entered the area of Armenkol, and beat the farmers,” the coordinator…

‘Poorly equipped Darfur police can’t deal with outlaws’: MP

October 29 – 2015 KHARTOUM The Minister of Interior Affairs, Esmat Abdelrahman, has acknowledged the inability of his ministry to deploy police in North Darfur’s Kutum, Um Baru, Karnoi, and El Tina localities. The Minister attributed…

‘India must arrest Sudan’s Al Bashir’: ICC

October 28 – 2015 THE HAGUE The International Criminal Court (ICC) says that India should arrest and hand over Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir, who is expected to arrive in New Delhi today to attend an India-Africa Summit…

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