Statement on Continuation of Mass Rape and Sexual Harassment in Darfur Mass Rape and Sexual Harass

11:13 PM February, 18 2019

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Statement on Continuation of Mass Rape and Sexual Harassment in Darfur
Mass Rape and Sexual Harassment Should be Vigorously Addressed

While the Sudanese revolution is raging throughout the country and entering its eighth week, the news brought us (the statement of the Women Congregation of Darfur on February 9, 2019), a new episode of rape incidents at Zamzam camp, where six women were raped. Zamzam camp is located south of El-Fasher, few kilometers away, it is one of the internal displaced camps where large numbers of Darfurians have been displaced by the war (displaced Darfuris number is about 2.7 million according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Darfur region suffers from the policies of the regime and the criminal acts of its armed militias, including mass killing and displacement of its population, the systematic sexual violence is used as a weapon of war to intimidate and terrorize the population and to break the resistance of local communities.
The alleged incident represented a new episode in the series of systematic sexual violence that has been used throughout the war against the people of Darfur. Reports of international organizations have also indicated a pattern of rape and sexual violence against women and men, for example, the rape of 200 women from the village of Tabet, (located 65 kilometers southern Al-Fasher) on October 31, 2014. The international community, represented by the Joint Mission of the United Nations and African Union (UNAMID) that mandated to protect the population from violations under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, has failed to stop the systematic sexual violence against Darfur women in the camps.
The policies of the regime have been characterized by a barrage of obscurity, withholding of facts and silencing voices in relation to exposing organized sexual violence policies in conflict situations which are a war crime and a crime in violation of the International Humanitarian Law and the International Criminal Law as provided for in articles 7 (1) and (b) (F) and (g) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and it is a violation of article 186, paragraphs (g / h / i / j) of the Sudanese Criminal Code, amended 2009.
The Sudanese regime has a record of systematic sexual violence in conflict in Darfur. The sexual violence is also being used by the regime in Khartoum to target the detainees in detention centers of the National Security and Intelligence Services (Report of the journalist Dura Gumbo, published in social media on 12 February 2019). Torture and rape are only examples of a systematic acts adopted by the regime in violation of all principles of international law and international conventions prohibiting torture and preventing rape and sexual violence in conflict and civil unrest in accordance with the Security Council Resolutions (1820, 1880.1889 et el).
The slackness of the international community, represented by the United Nations and its agencies, to take a decisive stand on the violations of human rights by the repressive regime has enabled the regime to persevere and commit more serious violations.
We in the Platform of Sudanese Legal Professionals Abroad condemn in the strongest terms the mass rape of women in Zamzam camp and the use of violence and sexual harassment against the detainees of the current peaceful protests in Sudan.
We urge the international mechanisms that are mandated to address sexual violence in conflict to investigate the alleged incidents of rape promptly and to bring perpetrators to account without any delays.

The Steering committee
The Platform of Sudanese Legal Professionals Abroad
Tuesday 19 February 2019