• gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    Emir Massar Aseel, an Arab tribal leader in El Geneina, dismissed the rape allegations as “empty lies.” Aseel is a leader of the Rizeigat – one of the largest Arab tribes in West Darfur and the group from which many RSF leaders hail. Arab tribal traditions prohibit sexual assault and bar Arabs from marrying Masalit, Aseel said in a phone interview, and thus his people couldn’t have committed mass rape.

    “If I can’t bring myself to marry” a Masalit woman, Aseel said, “why would I go and take her by force?”

    If not for the horrific context, the sheer idiocy of the above comment would be truly hilarious.