Somali Women Fleeing Famine Preyed on by Rapists
- Posted on July 31, 2011 at 6:08pm by
Scott Baker
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DADAAB, Kenya (AP) — Refugee Barwago Mohamud huddles silently beneath a few blankets stretched over sticks at night, fearing for her life after a neighbor was raped, and a naked woman who had been kidnapped and gang-raped for three days in front of her terrified children was delivered to the medical tent next door.
Only a few hundred feet away stands a newly built camp with a police station, toilet blocks and schools. Neat thornbush fences in the camp separate residential areas for families to move into. But all the facilities are empty. The Kenyan government is refusing to open the new Ifo 2 facility as part of the world’s biggest refugee camp, Dadaab, saying the desperate Somali refugees flowing into the country are a security risk.
But for the women and children who fled war and famine and are now forced to build their shelters farther and farther away from the center of the camps, the extension would be a refuge from the armed men who prowl the bush at night. Some may be deserters from Somali forces across the border; others are Kenyan bandits who rob and gang-rape the stream of refugees fleeing the famine in Somalia.
The contrast between the squalid, insecure outskirts of the sprawling camp and the empty, silent facilities shows how regional politics can interfere with aid efforts, causing millions of dollars to be wasted and leaving women and children vulnerable to attack.
“What can we do?” Mohamud asked. “Our neighbors have been raped at night. We are afraid. Some boys are helping watch at night in case of trouble but they also work during the day.”
Mohamud and eight other women and girls share their rickety shelter on the outskirts of Dadaab, a camp designed for 90,000 people which now houses around 440,000 refugees. Almost all are from war-ravaged Somalia. Some have been here for more than 20 years, when the country first collapsed into anarchy. But now more than 1,000 are arriving daily, fleeing fighting or hunger.
The U.N. said this month that at least two regions in Somalia are suffering from famine and 11.3 million people in the Horn of Africa need aid.
To help ease the overcrowding, international donors including the U.S. and European Union spent $16 million building the Ifo 2 extension, which could house 40,000 people. But it is still unclear when or if the Kenyan government will open it.
Research shows that women are often attacked when they leave their families to go to the bathroom or gather firewood. When Mohamud’s three young daughters need to relieve themselves, she insists on going with them, and takes the only torch the nine women share between them. She has no shoes, so she walks barefoot over the thorny ground.
“Women express a lot of fear about going to the bush. They say there are men with guns there,” said Sinead Murray, an aid worker with the International Rescue Committee. Her organization has recorded a spike in rapes and attempted rape. Since the beginning of June, they have had double the number of attacks reported from January-May.
“More and more women are coming forward who have been raped,” said Murray, who said consultations with communities show the vast majority of rapes go unreported. Women may not know where to seek help, or fear ostracism by their community.
They are women like Sahan, who was on a bus coming over from Somalia when four gunmen stopped the vehicle. The women were ordered off and raped in the bush for three hours. She has not reported the rape because she was living far away from any medical services on the outskirts of the camp and did not want to leave her family. She asked her last name not be used to protect her privacy.
A reporter for The Associated Press drove around the newly constructed area in Dadaab and found rows of new toilet blocks standing amid the rows of empty lots, where women could more safely go to the bathroom and easily walk to police or medical services if they were attacked.
The Ifo 2 camp also houses a freshly painted primary and secondary school, police station, and headquarters for aid organizations ranging from Handicap International to the Norwegian Refugee Council padlocked shut. A medical facility for Doctors Without Borders lay half-built after aid workers said they were told to stop building early this year. The group now treats people in nearby tents instead.
More than two weeks ago, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga visited Dadaab and said the Ifo 2 extension would open in 10 days. On Saturday, Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua said that no decision had yet been reached.
Kenyan officials have said that they consider the influx of Somalis a security risk because part of the country is held by al-Qaida linked rebels. They also fear that if they provide the schools and medical care lacking in Somalia, families will simply move to Kenya to get better services. The Kenyans want aid agencies to deliver food in Somalia instead but charities face attack by bandits and harassment by Kenyan officials at the border.
But Somalis say they have no other choice than to flee their homes because they will be killed by gunmen or starve to death if they stay at home.
In the meantime, the refugees keep coming as the hunger crisis worsens but there is nowhere for them to go. The camps are full to bursting, and medical staff are setting up tents to treat new arrivals. Women and their children are being forced farther out, away from services and security. Aid agencies are appealing for more donations, unable to use the facilities they built. And Mohamud, whose door is only a blanket draped on a stick, keeps her daughters close and dreads each sunset.
“We are afraid,” she said again, as her 13-year-old daughter played in the dirt in front of her. “Maybe they will come back. But we have nowhere else to go.”
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johnj1952
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 12:05amJust animals, and how are the children born going to be fed from these gang rapes, Muslims ya got to love em.
Report Post »PleaseStartBrainb4engagingmouth
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 11:15pmI wonder if it would be more effective if rather than taking several thousand “men” over there to protect women and children, what if we take the same equipment clothing and boots and train several thousand “women” to protect themselves .. the uniforms and shoes would improve their standard of living .. and food rations would get to their families .. just saying maybe??
Report Post »krenshau
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 4:34pmThere has got to be a solution to this. I would love to find 5 or 10 thousand men with guns to go over and protect these people. Can’t count on governments to do anything, civilians must protect their fellow humans.
Report Post »roadhog
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 1:16pmwere’s Bill Clinton
Report Post »don young
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 12:19pmThey must be muslim they seem to like rapeing women
Report Post »blazingaway
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 12:02pmMore of that slave mentality at work … yes all those black rappers here in America who claim the white man has raped them through-out all of history and yet they rap all their anti-women crap are the same people who are raping defenseless women and mothers and children who are under the worse of conditions. Reminds me of New Orleans and the flood when compared to the floods in the heartland. One group of people gets busy and works together to resolve and improve their situation. Another group simply preys on the weak and defenseless and complains that no one is there to help them. And then these same people wonder why the white man seeks to avoid them.
Report Post »dontbotherme
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 10:53amTh UN needs to put pressure on the powers that be to open the refuge camp, Dadaab. They don’t want to open it out of fear because the women & children are from the wrong sect. Are there no good, God fearing men in Kenya who will help protect the camp & the innocents?
Report Post »George40
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 10:05amWhere the hell is the UN orr NATO?
Report Post »Why should be be the police of the world if we do not get anything from it?
We can not afford to help!
I hate to say it, but screw them, we need to take care of ourselves and the way our congress is it will be a long time before we will be able to help anyone!
Kerri g
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 9:53amOur Pres. and the U.N. will get involed in a civil war in Lybia, where we have no business. But when women are being systimaticly raped and hundreds of thousands of children starving to death we hear crickets.
Report Post »Arminius23
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 10:12amAnswer: OIL!
Report Post »Jenny Lind
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 9:38amEvil,sheer evil, and Obama doesn’t even mention it. I rarely put blame square on the leadership of our country for other countries problems, famines and wars, but this should be addresed at the highest levels of outrage in our capitol, and what do we hear? Nothing but the sound of silence is heard. Shame on our leadership on both sides of the isle and our president
Report Post »The Catbird
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 7:47amAdherents of the illumined “Religion of Peace”. When will America and the west pull their heads out of their PC backsides and repudiate this 7th Century gutter religion? And when will the esteemed Ms Alred use her 150 decibel piehole to decry this clear and present violence against women?
Report Post »chazman
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 8:59amNow wait a minute here … it is OK for ignorant, uneducated muslim Somali men to rape women, right? I mean, Islam condones rape, doesn’t it?
Report Post »What a messed up race of people …
SHOWMESTATEGUY
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 2:35amWhy aren’t the muslims helping these muslims? Where is all that muslim oil money going? Somebody just told me they are spending the majority of it for weapons of war. Don‘t know if that’s true or not. But maybe Iran could cut back on the military thing a bit and sent some aid to these people. Maybe Syria could quit killing her own people and with the money saved send some to these people. Seems there are several options here that could make a difference in these muslims lives.
Report Post »Love glenn protect glenn
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 7:24amShowme
Report Post »Because Americans and europeans are the only people go around the world to help others. We have been brought up believe in that, while other countries realize this is a dog eat dog world, famine,disease, war, rape, …. Weaken the opponents, in the world of survival. How many lessons do we need to learn, not to nurture all creatures back to health, some will bite, or kill us when they feel strong again.
Arminius23
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 10:02amBecause their religion does not encourage helping each other in fact it says one needs to provide hospitality for 72 hours but past that approach everything that doesn’t concern you with indifference. If it’s not family or tribal it means nothing to them. In fact revenge is more prominent to Islam than any concern for fellow man up to the fifth generation. If you want want to understand anything read the Quran and Hadith. Study these words if you want to know the next play: Taquiyyah, Jihad, Jizrah.
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 1:49amRemember the true story…..Blackhawk Down???????? I don’t care about Somalis skanky skinny sluts….nor about anyone else in that POS country.
Report Post »loriann12
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 7:39amThey talk about Kenyan bandits…..don’t we have one of those in the White House…just sayin’.
Report Post »Arminius23
Posted on August 1, 2011 at 10:08amBecause this nation is the torch of decency! We’re the only nation that fights for principles. That’s why the world cast their eyes toward us, many would die to have their children live here, and many are trying to be like us. We fight and care for others because of the cherished belief that humanity has the potential to be greater than what it is. We are the greatest congregation of altruists that the world throughout its history has ever seen.
Report Post »