Martyred by rape: 39-year-old woman and 9-year-old child, fleeing war in northern Mozambique | Lusa

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Martyred by rape: 39-year-old woman and 9-year-old child, fleeing war in northern Mozambique | Lusa

9:44 CAT | 08 Dec 2021

A 39-year-old woman attempting to flee the war in Muidumbe, central Cabo Delgado, in 2020, was instead raped and forced to live with insurgents.

She fled with five children and her 79-year-old mother, traveling tens of kilometres to Macomia, the seat of the district government, but did not stay there long because of further rebel attacks.

She went back into the woods, this time towards the coastal area of Mucojo, where the family became dispersed and she found herself alone, she said in the course of an anonymous account of the abuse she had suffered.

On October 15 of this year, when trying to find water at one of the remote wells frequented by displaced women, she says she had the “bad luck” to be captured by a group of insurgents and raped by them, leaving her practically unconscious.

“They raped me, and I almost fainted on the spot, until one of them asked the others to stop, because he wanted me as his wife,” she recounts, now safe in Pemba, the provincial capital.

She assumed the role of wife, but a few days later seized the opportunity to escape to Macomia, where on October 30 she reported to the authorities.

Today, she lives in a cousin’s house and is awaiting authorisation to move to a resettlement site where displaced people are allocated plots of land to restart their lives, in houses made of traditional materials.

She says she remains “under police control”, and that the police visit her to check on her story. “They want to know how I escaped, and where I was during the period of the attacks.”

The authorities have called for surveillance of the population and at the same time have announced measures to prevent rebels from infiltrating those fleeing the conflict.

She took with her, on the long walk from Muidumbe to Pemba, a nine-year-old girl whom she found alone, and who had also been raped by insurgents.

This child was last week admitted to the provincial hospital in Pemba still suffering the after-effects of her assault. Medical tests confirmed the fact of the rape, and the woman who rescued her promised her continuing help, saying: “I take care of her as if she were my own daughter.”

The non-governmental organization (NGO) Human Rights Watch (HRW) today published a statement estimating that 600 women are missing after being kidnapped in Cabo Delgado, alleging that some ended up being sold for as little as €550 to “foreign fighters”.

Among its appeals, HRW calls on insurgent groups to release all people, and urges the Mozambican state to treat victims sympathetically, despite the need for vigilance, asking the international community to help towards that end.

Cabo Delgado province is rich in natural gas, but has been terrorised since October, 2017, by armed rebels, with some attacks being claimed by the extremist ‘Islamic State’ group.

The conflict has cost more than 3,100 lives, according to the ACLED conflict registration project, and left more than 817,000 residents displaced, according to Mozambican authorities.

Since July, an offensive by government troops with support from Rwanda, later joined by a Southern African Development Community (SADC) force, has restored security, recovering several areas from rebel hands, including the town of Mocimboa da Praia, which had been occupied since August, 2020.

Source: Lusa