WUNRN
KENYA-SOMALIA: REFUGEE WOMEN &
GIRLS AT RISK OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE
Photo: Kenneth Odiwuor/IRIN
Refugees awaiting
registration are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence
DADAAB, 8 September 2011 (PlusNews)
- Amina*, 27, left her home town of
"Many people had fled and said they were coming to
One day, while out collecting firewood to cook for her family, Amina says she
was attacked by three men who wrestled her to the ground and took turns to rape
her.
"They just came from different directions... I didn't even know they knew
each other, but they all approached me. One of them grabbed me, pushed me on
the ground and tore off my clothes and they raped me," she said. "I
couldn't make a noise because one held my legs and one closed my mouth."
A month after the attack, Amina was finally registered and told camp officials
about the rape. She was referred to
"When I told them, they counselled me and I was taken to test for HIV and
other sexually transmitted infections. I didn't have any of them, but I haven't
been myself since what I went through," she said. "It [rape] happens
to many of us on our way to Dadaab, or when we go to look for firewood."
SGBV cases on the rise
CARE International in July
said reported cases of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in
Originally established in 1991 to house 90,000 refugees, the camp's population
exceeds 460,000, and aid workers warn that women and girls are increasingly
vulnerable to violence either on their way to the camps or inside them.
"New arrivals that live on the outskirts where security is never assured
are even more vulnerable," Sinead Murray, gender-based violence programme
manager for the IRC in Dadaab, told IRIN/PlusNews.
Women and girls inside the camp have access to protection mechanisms, including
firewood safety patrols, community patrols and safe spaces for girls and women,
but those in the outposts are largely on their own.
Many new arrivals awaiting registration have to live in outposts, or refugee
settlements outside the designated camps. These unplanned settlements - which
agencies say are largely occupied by women and children - tend to be poorly lit
and insecure.
A July assessment by the IRC of
gender-based violence in Dadaab found that victims of sexual violence were
usually reluctant to report out of shame, or for fear that their families would
blame them or their communities would reject them as unmarriageable.
Participants in the assessment identified sexual violence and rape as the biggest concern for women and girls while fleeing Somalia; they reported women and girls being raped in front of their husbands, at the insistence of “bandits” or “men with guns”, or being forced to strip naked and being raped by multiple perpetrators.
Awareness raising
"Many incidents did go unreported and even now many still remain
unreported, but we have started to carry out awareness within the target
population and set up ways that women and girls can report such cases without
feeling victimized... We have started to see an increase in reported
cases," said Murray. "Carrying out behaviour change communication
targeting both men and women is critical in reducing cases of sexual violence
in the camps and these efforts have been stepped up."
The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is providing post-rape kits and other
reproductive health tools to health facilities in the camp. Women and girls who
report sexual violence are provided with psychosocial support, HIV counselling
and testing, screening for STIs, pregnancy tests and treatment for any
infection. At the registration centres, referral systems for new arrivals who
report sexual violence have been put in place so they can get help at medical
facilities.
According to Matilda Musumba, the emergency response officer at UNFPA's Dadaab
office, the lack of information about how to deal with sexual violence left new
arrivals at risk of injury, infection and unwanted pregnancies.
"Providing basic information to new arrivals on where to report cases of
violence against them is an important first step in reducing cases of
gender-based violence, because when they arrive and they have no information,
women and girls become susceptible to sexual exploitation," she said.