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Renewed fighting between Sudan forces, rebels reaches villages
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May 29 - 2017 KUTUM Both the Sudanese government and members of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Minawi (SLM-MM) and the SLM-Transitional Council claim victory following new fierce fighting in North Darfur’s Kutum on Sunday. The violence reached inhabitants of Ein Siro, north-west of Kutum, where Rapid Support Forces (RSF) members raided villages early Sunday morning. Five people, including a child, were killed, a local community leader reported to Radio Dabanga. Calling from the safety of the mountains, he explained that the many villagers who have fled to the mountains cannot descend because the militias are still deployed there. “From the mountain we can see the attackers. They are pillaging our solar panels, medical tools, and livestock.”
The rebel SLM groups released a statement later that day, claiming the destruction of more than 13 Land Cruisers of the Sudanese army. The army and RSF stated that they managed to defeat the holdout rebel movements.
A number of rebel fighters, however, have been arrested, including Nimir Abdelrahman, the leader of SLM-TC, and Ahmed Hussein, the spokesman for SLM-MM. They were “shown to the public” in the stadium of Nyala.
Exact numbers of the casualties on both sides are not yet ascertained. In the meantime, lawyers decried the public statement of East Darfur Governor Anas Omar Fadlelmoula, who said the bodies of slain rebel fighters should not be buried but left in the open.
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Death sentence for rape, murder of girl in South Darfur city
May 30 - 2017 NYALA The Children's Court in Nyala sentenced the rapist and killer of a six-year-old girl to death by hanging. The victim was found tied-down in his shop, and was suffocated with napkins and biscuits.
The 23-year-old convict is a shopkeeper in El Wehda district named Mustafa, who was caught in the act on Wednesday morning 17 May. A policeman summarised for the court that the six-year-old girl, who was sent by her parents to buy milk nearby, soon was reported missing by her father. He went searching for her with neighbours and suspected her to be in a closed shop. The child’s dead body was found in the middle of the shop. The suspect was hiding under the shop table holding a knife.
Investigations revealed that the victim arrived to the shop of the defendant, who forcibly entered her into the shop and closed the door. He tied her hands behind her neck, tied her to a chair, and put a box load of biscuits and paper napkins down her throat. The perpetrator raped the victim using Vaseline.
A doctor confirmed that the cause of death was suffocation. His autopsy turned out that the girl's hymen and two front teeth were broken, which causes death within five seconds to a girl of her age, the doctor said.
As soon as the news broke on 17 May, people gathered in the streets of the city to hold protests against the murder. The case has gathered widespread attention since, and the courtroom yesterday was filled with – besides the parents of the victim – prosecutors, members of child protection offices, representatives of Unamid, and journalists.
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