Displaced woman assaulted by militiamen in Mershing, South Darfur

Militiamen seriously injured a woman from the Silo camp for the displaced in Mershing locality, South Darfur on Thursday. They stabbed her three times in her back and chest outside of the camp. A Silo camp resident told Radio Dabanga that two “government-backed militiamen wearing military uniforms” attacked a displaced woman who was collecting straw south of the camp. She fiercely resisted the men’s stabbing and was able to hit the attackers with a tool she used for pulling the straw. The gunmen fled and left behind a donkey they had with them. The woman reported the incident to the police of Mershing. She has also brought the donkey there. Meanwhile, sheikhs of the camps in Manawashi in South Darfur complained about the “semi-collective displacement” of men and women who are in search of work. This is caused by the failure of the agricultural season, the lack of food provided by humanitarian organisations as well as the lack of security in the region, they claimed. One of the sheikhs said that women are mostly moving to Nyala, Kass, Tullus, El Salam, and Katayla localities to work on the farmlands or in brick factories. Men go searching for work in Khartoum, Gedaref, and South Sudan.  File photo: women collecting firewoodRelated: ‘No food, medicines, protection’ in ten South Darfur camps (24 November 2013)