WUNRN
Mali - Women Raped, Stoned, Lashed & Forced to Marry During Conflict
By Kate Thomas – February 11, 2013
“The Islamists met with the imam and they
said, ‘Let us tell you our rules’,” said Adane Djiffiey Djallo, a coordinator
at Aide et Developpement au
But the imam turned to the Islamists and said: “‘Let me tell you my rules.’” He explained many women headed up households or had jobs of their own while their husbands worked on farms. ‘“I can't stop you forcing them to cover their heads – but I won't allow you to ban them from carrying out their daily activities’,” the imam said, according to Djallo.
At first, the women of Haribomo were relieved.
Tuareg fighters from the Movement for the
Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) had seized Haribomo and other parts of northern
Under the Tuareg occupation, there were
cases of gang rape and an increase in forced marriage. The Haribomo women hoped
things would improve.
But the Islamists brought Sharia law, with its brutal punishments such as lashing and stoning. They forced the women of Haribomo to cover up from head to toe and they outlawed sex before marriage – only to commit acts of sexual violence against the women themselves.
REPORT CITES HUNDREDS OF CASES
Fatoumata Cisse, a teacher from Gao, said
the daughter of a friend was forced into marriage with a member of Mujao – the
Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, an Al-Qaida splinter and one of
the five groups of Islamist fighters present in northern
“He forced her to have sex with him, and when she became pregnant, he told her she must name the baby Mujao,” Cisse told AlertNet. “Fortunately, he was gone before the baby was born.”
Cisse's story is one of hundreds of
accounts of sexual violence emerging in the wake of the French and African
intervention to liberate northern
There have been at least 200 cases of forced marriage and sexual violence – including against men – since March 2012, according to the Gao-based non-government organisation GREFFA, citing a report by the U.N. Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict. GREFFA saw the report but it has not been made public.
Meanwhile, a joint initiative by U.N. Women and GREFFA has collected the testimonies of 52 girls and women who suffered gender-based violence in the towns of Gao and Menaka since April last year.
TUAREGS ARE MAIN AGGRESSORS
But while there are credible accounts of violence carried out by Islamist fighters, most of the testimonies cite Tuareg rebels as the aggressors, said GREFFA director Fatimata Toure, who has been hearing from victims and documenting cases of sexual abuse.
“In Gao, members of the MNLA took girls as they walked along the streets, or lifted them from their own homes and drove them to the abandoned barracks of the Malian army,” said Toure.
“We heard how they were sometimes handcuffed and locked inside rooms there – for 48 or 72 hours – and raped collectively by as many as four men at a time,” she added.
Toure said the worst atrocities were
committed in Menaka, a dusty town in the shadow of the Ader Douchi hills in
northeastern
“We heard how a daughter was raped together with her mother, while her father was tied down and forced to watch. Girls under 12 years old were attacked, as were women over 60. One woman lost an eye when the rapist beat her,” said Toure.
Sexual violence carried out by members of
the MNLA mostly targeted women and girls from the noble
After the Malian army fled from the Gao
area, the MNLA no longer had an enemy to fight so they turned on the local
population, Toure explained.
“Many of the young men who committed these
acts didn't grow up in
There have also been cases of women and
girls being sexually attacked by men speaking Hausa, the predominant language
of northern
ISLAMIST ATROCITIES
While fewer cases have been reported of sexual violence carried out by Islamist groups, Toure said she had heard the testimonies of a number of women and girls who had been attacked by Islamists.
“In January, an 11-year-old girl was raped by a man fighting alongside them (the Islamists). We've heard several cases like this, usually carried out by young men recruited locally by Islamist groups.”
“They imposed Sharia law, giving punishments of lashes to girls who had sex before marriage, yet their fighters got away with sexual violence. It's hypocrisy,” she added.
Corinne Dufka, Human Rights Watch's Senior West Africa Researcher, said she had heard two or three credible accounts of sexual violence linked to the Islamists. “These merit further investigation," she said.
Dufka added that while forced marriage in
northern
“The rate of forced marriages increased when the MNLA came to town,” said Cisse, the teacher from Gao, who told how a Tuareg man forced a neighbour’s daughter to marry him. He paid a high bride price and took the woman to her new home – but four men were waiting there to rape her. “She was tricked,” said Cisse.
Witnesses say the Tuaregs often paid a bride price first, perhaps as a show of power or financial clout.
HELP FOR SURVIVORS
The Tuaregs have vowed to support the
French intervention and the Malian army against Islamist groups, but with so
many reports of sexual violence committed by them, rights experts and NGOs are
voicing concern.
“Nobody can trust the MNLA men now,” said
Djallo. “How can they fight for our stability in
Some of the survivors have said they plan
to stay in
A trauma centre for the survivors of gender-based violence and other conflict-related abuses has been set up inside the main hospital in Gao, but recovery won't be easy.
“We documented the case of a woman who gave birth to twins fathered by a rapist,” Toure said. “The babies have light skin – it's obvious that they are Tuareg children. She'll have to deal with the shame inflicted by the community, and yet the children are a part of her too. What if they want to find their father one day?”
Despite the taboo associated with rape in
northern
“We hope that will change when things are
calmer,” Toure said. “Still, these women are brave. Launching an official
complaint carries high stakes. If the community finds out you've been raped,
you risk being alone for the rest of your life.”