They were notorious for killings and rapes of civilians there, according to rights groups. The RSF grew out of the Janjaweed militias, which al-Bashir mobilized to fight in the Darfur conflict in the early 2000s. “At the sit-in, you would see the best of us.” “We were all Sudanese,” said Samah, the teacher. They were celebrated with the nickname “kandaka” - a title of ancient Nubian queens that became a slogan and symbol of the protests.Īfter the protest forced al-Bashir’s fall, the military took sole power - but the protesters refused to end their sit-in, demanding a civilian government. Women took a major role, often giving speeches to the crowds. In protesters’ eyes, the camp was a place of freedom where the common cause healed Sudan’s many divisions. In her backpack, she had a journal where she wrote poems about love, her parents, relationships. It was steady money, but she also found a community. When the sit-in camp arose in front of the main military headquarters in downtown Khartoum in April 2019 - the culmination of months of protests - she set up her tea stand in the square to sell to the protesters. Her parents kicked her out after she refused to remarry. Married and divorced as a teen, her ex-husband took their two children. Mayada had lived on her own the past three years, one of the many impoverished women who sell tea on the sidewalks of Khartoum. “Watching him sends chills through my body,” she said. The women’s ordeal embodies the terrible personal price paid by activists in crackdowns that have crushed pro-democracy movements around the Middle East in recent years.įor Samah, a 28-year-old teacher, the wounds of her gang-rape that day are reopened whenever she sees Dagalo on TV. By their accounts, the rapes took place in specific locations - in a medical complex, a cemetery and the grounds of Khartoum University’s mosque. They told similar stories of RSF fighters corralling up men and women who fled the protest site, beating them, sexually molesting the women and gang-raping some. The AP spoke to six rape victims, whom it is identifying only by first names. Spokesmen for the military and the RSF did not respond to multiple AP requests for comment. Victims and activists have little faith the military will allow any findings that implicate top generals.ĭagalo and the military have said the troops that day had no orders to clear the camp, only to clamp down on part of it where drug-dealing and other crimes allegedly took place. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, who is considered the strongest man in the leadership and enjoys the backing of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Most notably, the council’s deputy head is the commander of the RSF, Gen. The protest movement, which began in 2018, succeeded in ousting longtime military strongman, President Omar al-Bashir, in April 2019 and forcing the creation of a joint civilian-military ruling “sovereign council.”īut the civilians are struggling to assert authority in the face of the military’s power. Identifying and prosecuting those behind the violence is a major test of whether Sudan can shed its decades-long military rule. They said many more women were sexually assaulted and several men were among those raped. Howida al-Hassan, a member of the union who counseled survivors.īoth experts say the real number is considerably higher, since many victims don’t speak for fear of reprisal or the stigma connected to rape.
The Sudan Doctors Union identified at least 60 rape victims, said Dr. Her center documented at least 64 rape victims. All was by order and systematic,” said Sulima Ishaq Sharif, who at the time headed a trauma center at Khartoum’s Ahfad University.
0 kommentar(er)
