The Fort Worth Press - Rape stalks women in C. Africa's dirty war

USD -
AED 3.67295
AFN 68.452776
ALL 93.048382
AMD 390.177793
ANG 1.816976
AOA 911.999619
ARS 998.2263
AUD 1.54507
AWG 1.8
AZN 1.698754
BAM 1.853558
BBD 2.03554
BDT 120.47462
BGN 1.855803
BHD 0.376886
BIF 2977.069937
BMD 1
BND 1.347372
BOB 6.966716
BRL 5.825396
BSD 1.008198
BTN 85.007628
BWP 13.679442
BYN 3.299388
BYR 19600
BZD 2.031743
CAD 1.39969
CDF 2864.999771
CHF 0.887995
CLF 0.035848
CLP 989.153355
CNY 7.242201
CNH 7.254505
COP 4485.54
CRC 514.803442
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 104.500739
CZK 23.985696
DJF 179.528977
DKK 7.077685
DOP 60.720649
DZD 133.952972
EGP 49.372602
ERN 15
ETB 123.045036
EUR 0.948855
FJD 2.27535
FKP 0.789317
GBP 0.789359
GEL 2.730455
GGP 0.789317
GHS 16.281891
GIP 0.789317
GMD 70.999572
GNF 8685.114015
GTQ 7.788646
GYD 210.880869
HKD 7.781775
HNL 25.453011
HRK 7.133259
HTG 132.557454
HUF 387.514307
IDR 15925.803259
ILS 3.75528
IMP 0.789317
INR 84.414504
IQD 1320.673043
IRR 42092.50406
ISK 139.809873
JEP 0.789317
JMD 159.606118
JOD 0.709202
JPY 155.972502
KES 129.514885
KGS 86.199267
KHR 4084.665671
KMF 466.349913
KPW 900.000094
KRW 1405.411475
KWD 0.307686
KYD 0.839986
KZT 496.917168
LAK 22141.007898
LBP 90227.005275
LKR 294.668935
LRD 190.003315
LSL 18.110979
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.884614
MAD 10.024356
MDL 18.167086
MGA 4704.489757
MKD 58.413636
MMK 2097.99974
MNT 3398.000066
MOP 8.075803
MRU 40.134198
MUR 47.429998
MVR 15.449884
MWK 1748.169588
MXN 20.548297
MYR 4.484504
MZN 63.899993
NAD 18.111065
NGN 1684.480416
NIO 37.103201
NOK 11.15606
NPR 136.03721
NZD 1.704841
OMR 0.385008
PAB 1
PEN 3.821032
PGK 4.051574
PHP 58.819002
PKR 280.056171
PLN 4.113175
PYG 7867.983726
QAR 3.675652
RON 4.722896
RSD 111.038018
RUB 99.300479
RWF 1383.775103
SAR 3.757064
SBD 8.383555
SCR 13.620181
SDG 601.488769
SEK 11.00801
SGD 1.346067
SHP 0.789317
SLE 22.814977
SLL 20969.503157
SOS 576.121825
SRD 35.279862
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.819614
SYP 2512.529518
SZL 18.116683
THB 35.003667
TJS 10.73969
TMT 3.51
TND 3.147935
TOP 2.389991
TRY 34.35863
TTD 6.849698
TWD 32.572978
TZS 2681.658374
UAH 41.641396
UGX 3672.512403
UYU 42.486895
UZS 12891.667497
VES 44.876473
VND 25393.60245
VUV 118.721977
WST 2.803992
XAF 622.573731
XAG 0.03345
XAU 0.000391
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.753908
XOF 622.573731
XPF 113.258656
YER 249.774976
ZAR 18.282105
ZMK 9001.205525
ZMW 27.572126
ZWL 321.999592
  • RBGPF

    59.2500

    59.25

    +100%

  • BCC

    1.4200

    142.55

    +1%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0400

    7.07

    -0.57%

  • RIO

    -0.5800

    60.62

    -0.96%

  • SCS

    -0.3000

    13.37

    -2.24%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.24

    +0.15%

  • BCE

    -0.4800

    27.21

    -1.76%

  • CMSC

    0.0700

    24.61

    +0.28%

  • CMSD

    -0.0200

    24.73

    -0.08%

  • NGG

    -0.7800

    62.12

    -1.26%

  • VOD

    0.2800

    8.75

    +3.2%

  • BTI

    0.1800

    35.42

    +0.51%

  • GSK

    -0.4100

    35.11

    -1.17%

  • RELX

    -0.4700

    46.12

    -1.02%

  • BP

    0.4100

    28.57

    +1.44%

  • AZN

    0.1000

    65.29

    +0.15%

Rape stalks women in C. Africa's dirty war
Rape stalks women in C. Africa's dirty war

Rape stalks women in C. Africa's dirty war

Maia looks down at her expanding belly, her eyes welling with tears.

Text size:

Four months ago, an armed man grabbed and raped the 15-year-old, attacking her as she was harvesting cassava roots.

In the remote northwest of the Central African Republic (CAR), sexual violence targeting women, adolescents and even younger girls is on the rise.

Brutal acts are committed by rebels, militiamen and security forces alike, according to the United Nations.

In Paoua, about 500 kilometres (300 miles) northwest of the capital Bangui, more than a dozen rape victims turn up every day at a clinic run by the Danish Refugee Council (DRC).

The distraught teenager struggles to put her feelings into words. "I was alone in the fields when an armed man wearing a turban grabbed me," she says in a near-whisper.

"I told him I was a virgin and begged him not to hurt me," Maia says, unable to utter the word "rape", even as she bears the unborn child of the man who assaulted her.

Like Maia, Marie was harvesting cassava to feed her family when two armed men appeared.

Her husband fled the scene, but she reacted too slowly.

"They tied my hands, tore my clothes and took turns raping me," says the 23-year-old, who was wearing a traditional gown in the purple, green and white colours of International Women's Day.

The rape victims interviewed by AFP all had similar stories.

Most said they had been assaulted in the fields by rebels of a powerful local militia known as the 3R, a name derived from the French words for Return, Reclamation and Rehabilitation.

- 'Easy target' -

"In this area, it is mainly women who farm and take care of feeding the family," says Lola, an employee at the centre whose name has been changed for her safety, like Maia's and Marie's.

"Alone and helpless in the fields, they are an easy target for the rebels."

A civil war in the CAR that began in 2013, pitting myriad militias against a state on the verge of collapse, had lessened considerably in recent years.

But about a year ago, fighting resumed abruptly when rebels launched an offensive to overthrow President Faustin Archange Touadera.

At the time, armed groups controlled two-thirds of the CAR's territory.

But they ceded most of it when the army, backed by hundreds of Russian paramilitaries, mounted a massive counter-offensive against the rebels.

Today militia forces are confined to the countryside and have switched to guerrilla tactics -- and harassment and abuse of civilians are on the rise.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded 6,336 cases of gender-based violence between January and July 2021 across the deeply poor country.

The agency identified a quarter of such cases as sexual violence, an increase of 58 percent compared with the first half of 2020. Rebels and militiamen are more active in the Paoua region.

Recent reports by the United Nations or by UN-sponsored experts have accused both soldiers and their Russian mercenary allies of committing rapes.

At the Paoua hospital, signs prohibit the carrying of weapons.

A dozen women and girls wait outside a door freshly painted in pink to see Fabrice Clavaire Assana, a doctor who specialises in counseling and treating victims of gender-based violence.

"After a phase of listening and building confidence," Assana says, he carries out gynaecological examinations and provides emergency treatment when needed.

But his options are few.

The "morning-after" anti-pregnancy pill, hepatitis B vaccine and anti-HIV medicine work only if taken within 72 hours. "This is rarely the case," he says regretfully.

- 50km trek -

After Marie was assaulted, she turned first to relatives.

"I was distraught and ashamed. I first went to my in-laws in my torn clothes, but they were unable to pay for my transport to Paoua," she says.

So Marie then walked 50 km to Paoua, "praying" not to tread on a landmine or run into rebels.

"I relive the scene day and night, I can't go back to the fields," sighs Marie, burying her face in her hands.

"My husband has fled -- now I'm alone with two children to feed, and I can't grow crops."

Neither Maia nor Marie has tried to seek justice for the men who raped them.

Such crimes almost always go unpunished in the absence of functioning courts.

M.Delgado--TFWP