Sudanese rape victims speak from Chad’s refugee camps

Sudanese rape victims speak from Chad’s refugee camps

Loua, 18, misses her small garden in El-Geneina, where luscious mangoes once grew.

In June of this year, the RSF destroyed her home.

She claims that “they burned our entire village.” In the attack, an uncle, three neighbors, and two of her brothers were killed.

Roua and eight of her school friends were abducted by RSF fighters despite making an attempt to escape on foot. They were all raped, total.

They held us for two days, they said. She claims that two of them, who had been raped there, had actually perished from that location as a result. Her memories of her lost friends make her tears run.

“It seemed helpless to me. At that point, I wished I had died.

The horror persists even after two years.

She claims, “I can’t sit still for a long time.”

Roua’s hand rests on the breastfeeding baby, and her face is unmoving as she speaks. After fleeing across the border with the majority of her family, the child’s father is a Chadian police officer.

She initially assumed he was interested in her after they had dated a few times.

He said, “I like you, I like you. She says, “I want you,” and she runs away as the footsteps come near. Such remarkables are shared with apprehension even within a small tent’s confines.

She recalls her second encounter with him at home, “but I refused,” she says.

She claims that after being raped, “He grabbed me and slammed me down on the floor.”

Roua and her rapist are no longer in communication.

Sexual abuse is not uncommon in refugee camps and during humanitarian crises.

According to Loiseau, “sex is a sex for survival” for some young girls. She and her team provide covert psychological assistance at the Maison d’étoile, the Red Cross’s House of Stars in Adre.

[Caitlin Kelly/Al Jazeera] A woman sits in the Sudanese-run Women’s Centre in Adre, where dozens of women have received psychosocial support.

They say they are invited to do laundry or other tasks, but ultimately they are raped instead of being paid. They are violated. She mentions refugees who frequently work for locals in Adre and claim that there is nothing they can do about it.

Given the absence of many women’s husbands, the camp’s pregnancies have raised questions for aid workers and community leaders.

According to Loiseau, “when you dig, you discover that it wasn’t consensual.”

Roua consistently rocks Awa, a nine-month-old baby, while staring into the distance. She describes how her family was harmed by the rape, which inflamed her father. She claims that a friend who was also pregnant after being raped by a Chadian police officer, went back to Sudan out of shame.

Inside, I’m broken, inside. I’m not able to eat at times. I’m sleepy-eyed. I’m not interested in talking to people. … I feel as though I’ve changed.

Refugees claim that violence is becoming more frequent in the camp despite Borgo’s claims that things are under control. Women claim they make sure their homes are out of the market by 6pm because one gang called The Colombians has gained notoriety for causing trouble.

In and around the camp, according to Doctors Without Borders, which also has the French acronym MSF.

Women who leave the camp to collect firewood or water may be targeted, according to Dr. Assoumana Halarou, the medical director of MSF in Chad.

One of those victims earlier in the day was Hanan, a woman who was listening to UNICEF while gathering firewood.

Hanan desperately needs medical care, despite the fact that there is psychological support.

My children are six. Both my wife and I are married. How should I feed my second child if I have him? ” she berates herself for her “bad luck” by asking.

Source: Aljazeera

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