Sudan National Human Rights Commission visits Tabit village to verify reports of women’s rape

Khartoum-SudaneseOnline-A delegation from Sudan National Human Rights Commission (SNHRC), accompanied by several ministers of the regional authority, visited on Thursday North Darfur state to know the latest developments in the in Tabit village in which soldiers of Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) have accused of raping (200) women.
The delegation listened to a number of village’s women who announced that the accusations is baseless, considering the claims as insult to them, their families and the village’s men.
Majority of the victims of the mass rape were young women. According to the residents of Tabit, the horrendous mass rape lasted from Friday evening to early hours of Saturday morning.
The Sudanese soldiers invaded the village on Friday morning, claiming that one of their soldiers went missing on Thursday evening. He gave the villagers until sunset to retrieve the missing soldier. The soldiers then proceeded to beat and humiliated the men in Tabit.
One of the village elders reported an eyewitness account of the mass rape to Radio Dabanga.
Sudan’s Human rights Commissioner, Dr. Taha Bamkar, said that they were worried about what had published in the foreign media about the rumor of rape, stressing those media reports of violations in the village baseless.
The African Union – United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) stressed on Tuesday that it has found no evidence of any case of rape in Tabit village, located (49) km southwest of El-Fasher, capital of North Darfur.
In a joint press conference they held with the governor of North Darfur state in El Fasher, UNAMID officials tasked to investigate the incident said that they had visited the village and found no evidence of rape or involvement of Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) in any violations.
The chairman of the verification team in El-Fasher told reporters they sent a report to the UN headquarters in New York and Geneva dismissing the incident, adding the UN Security Council will discuss the issue on Monday evening.

Arabic Forum