News From Damanga

Posted on November 22, 2006
Filed Under Darfur |

Sisters Fight Off Attempted Rapist Outside Ardamata IDP Camp

October 12, 2006

Two girls who were grazing cattle outside their IDP camp were attacked by a Janjaweed militia member who attempted to rape them last Wednesday, October 4, 2006 at about 11 am Darfur local time, according to three different Damanga sources who spoke with witnesses of the incident. Kondong Adeleem, age 12, and her sister Nanj Adeleem, age 15 [both Kondong and Nanj are nicknames the girls are known by] , were assaulted less than three kilometers from an IDP camp in Ardamada, a town located east of Al Geneina.

The Janjaweed militia member first attempted to rape the 12-year old, but she and her sister fought back. The older sister was stabbed in the confrontation and fell to the ground.

The attacker then attempted to rape the older girl, but the 12-year old struck him unconscious with an axe. The younger girl then ran back to the IDP camp to seek help for her sister.

Residents of the IDP camp returned to the scene of the attack and took both the injured girl and the Janjaweed militia member to the hospital for treatment. The 12-year old was not injured, but the 15-year old remains hospitalized.

The girls reported the incident to police, though it is unclear whether any action was taken.

The town of Ardamata houses many IDPs and is also the site of a base camp for Janjaweed and Sudanese army troops. Four witnesses described this attack to three different Damanga sources. The witnesses and the two girls who were attacked, are from the same village, Chubokey, east of Ardamata town. Chubokey was destroyed in a Janjaweed attack last year, and the survivors took refuge at different camps in the area, such as the camps by the villages of Ardamata, Umnaima, Kerdang and Hajer Leban .

This is not the first attack suffered by the Adeleem family. Damanga reported last year that the girls’ cousin, Abdalla Ishag Adeleem, a police officer, was killed by the Janjaweed. Mr. Adeleem, from Massaleit tribe, was in a police convoy that was ambushed by the Janjaweed and government security agents. Mr. Adeleem and several other police officers

Imam Arrested for Speaking in Support of UN Peacekeepers

October 16, 2006

Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy has learned of the arrest and detention of Mohammed Haroun, the 63-year old Imam at the Hai al-Madaris Mosque in Al Geneina. While leading the mosque’s noon prayer service on September 29, 2006 Haroun spoke in support of foreign intervention to help stop the killings in Darfur. Later that same day, he was arrested at his home along with his son Saleh Mohamed Haroun, age 47.

According to Haroun’s neighbors, four plainclothes security guards, accompanied by a driver, arrived at Haroun’s home in the Hai al-Madaris district at around eight o’clock in the evening. The guards came in a Land Cruiser pickup and were armed with machine guns. His neighbors report that Haroun and his son were taken to the security department in the Ardamata military area, located about three miles east of Al Geneina town. Neither Haroun nor his son has been seen or heard from since.

Haroun is one of several Imams in Darfur who have spoken out recently urging foreign intervention. The arrests signal a heightening of the Sudanese government’s efforts to crush support for a UN peacekeeping mission. According to Damanga Coalition’s sources in Darfur, others who have spoken out against the Sudanese government or in support of the UN have been similarly silenced.

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(source)

(hat tip: Howie)

Comments

5 Responses to “News From Damanga”

  1. howie on November 22nd, 2006 10:46 pm

    Drima-

    Wonderful to see this piece on your blog. Hopefully this will be one more piece in getting the world invovled in a solution in Darfur.

    Sincerely

    Chawaga Markutu Gerutendi

  2. tsedek on November 22nd, 2006 11:45 pm

    My soooooo great admiration for these 2 young girls : WOW! What courage to hit him and knock him out. They must have been terrified (like: DUH!!) - and to react with so much spirit in such a situation just earns the greatest respect!

    Tse.

  3. Not Your Mama on November 23rd, 2006 12:59 am

    Good on those girls, they reacted like EVERY woman should. I’m betting they have mothers who didn’t raise them to be doormats.

  4. Mohamed Yahya on November 23rd, 2006 1:57 am

    Dear Drima,

    I was delighted by your braveness,and admired by the extrordinary outstanding you committed to raise awareness and supporting those innocent,voiceless,powerless in Darfur.It’ is very rare in this critical time to find people like you to tell the truth and promote the rights that been manoplated by those notorious,fascists regimes.It was a pleasure to know you through my best friend Dr.Howard Chudler,and i greatly appreciate your work I look forward working with you in the future.Thank you again posting Damanga reports in your beautiful website.And please feel free to do that at anytime.I also working on linking our sites together.If you are interested to do this,Please let me know.
    God bless you and hope you all the best.
    Yours:
    Mohamed Yahya.

  5. Drima on November 23rd, 2006 6:56 am

    Ya 3ammi Mohamed walahi you are most welcome. This is just a very small thing that I felt I should do since there isn’t much else I can do besides donations. You are right, very few Sudanese now care about what’s happening. Most of them have given up and some just don’t care. I won’t wait for them. This is the least I can do.

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