Four Women Savagely Beaten and Raped: The A.U. Refuses to Arrest Admitted Perpetrators

April 1, 2006

On Wednesday, March 22, 2006, members of the Arab Janjaweed raped four Darfurian women after beating them unconscious, a Damanga correspondent reported. Subsequently, two relatives of the victims have confirmed the horrific details.

The four victims have been identified as Khadija Abderahman Arbab, a forty year old women originally from the destroyed village of Tabarik, Medina Adam Iriss Hassab, a fourteen year old girl originally from the destroyed village of Gedeer, Afaf Mussa Yagoub, a nineteen year old from the destroyed village of Biara, and Zubaida Adam Abdulgadir, a twenty year old originally from the destroyed village of Tejuna.

All of the victims reside in the Kerdang refugee camp just east of Al-Geneina in western Darfur. Conditions in the camp are poor, and residents struggle to feed their familes, even with the assistance the international community provides. There is no option but to head into the bush to collect grass and firewood which can be sold as animal feed and fuel, respectively, to help feed their families. The women know that when they leave the camp they face the real possibility of being raped or killed by Janjaweed militia, but the alternative is to watch their children starve.

Early in the morning of March 22, the four women left the camp and began walking south, carrying rakes to collect the dry grass. They walked for an hour to an area between the destroyed villages of Hashaba and Gedeer, where they were approached by eight Janjaweed, six of whom wore Sudanese military uniforms. The Janjaweed attacked the women, who initially attempted to resist. The Janjaweed grabbed their rakes, beat them unconscious, raped them, and left them bleeding in the bush.

The victims’ relatives in Kerdang waited nervously from the moment the women left the camp. As the afternoon wore on, they feared the awful truth, and started searching for the victims. They found the women and brought them to the hospital in Geneina, where at least one is still receiving treatment. The doctors confirmed that the women were raped while they were unconscious.

The victims’ families then reported the incident to African Union forces who soon located the perpetrators in their encampment near the seen of the crime. Damanga’s sources believe that the Janjaweed admitted their crime knowing there was nothing the African Union could do. The African Union troops left the scene after investigating the incident and told the family members that they could not arrest the attackers.

The Darfurians were incensed by the peacekeepers’ impotence. If the A.U. cannot arrest eight admitted Janjaweed rapists, then why are they in the country or even called peacekeepers? This incident reinforces the perception that the A.U. deployment merely shields the Janjaweed from real international intervention. The incompetence and inaction of the A.U. have driven tensions with the local community to a boiling point. The ineffectiveness of the A.U. peacekeepers only exacerbates the tension in the region and increases the risk of violent reaction by the Darfurians. To avoid further suffering and conflict, the U.N. should take aggressive steps to assume the A.U. mandate and deploy U.N. forces with sufficient authority and resources to protect the civilians of Darfur.