Click on the link to see an infographic highlighting the seriousness of the situation
Africa has been bleeding for decades, losing trillions of dollars to tax dodgers through illicit financial flows. This phenomenon, a common practice by multinational corporations, is also known as “illicit financial flight”.
This is money that could have gone towards development interests for millions of Africans. To help remedy the state of affairs, a new campaign was launched on Thursday that aims to help reverse illicit financial flows from the continent once and for all.
It is estimated that the continent alone loses US$50-billion each year to illicit capital flight, amounting to US$1.8-trillion between 1970 and 2008. This is 20% more than the amount of official development assistance coming in.
Nairobi, Kenya, played host to the launch of Stop the Bleeding, an initiative that is the result of years of work by several organisations operating in the tax justice field, and is a unified African CSO-led campaign to stop illicit financial flows from Africa. With this initiative, the Interim Working Group (IWG) of the African Illicit Financial Flow Campaign Platform aims to eradicate this particular illegal practice of large businesses doing work on the continent.
Other organisations involved include Tax Justice Network - Africa; Third World Network - Africa; Africa Forum and Network on Debt and Development; the African Women’s Development and Communication Network; the African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation; and Trust Africa.
Government/AU support
A recent report from the African Union (AU) / Economic Commission for Africa's high level panel on illicit financial flows from Africa, chaired by former president Thabo Mbeki, estimates that the African continent alone is losing roughly $50-billion each year.
In its January Declaration on Illicit Financial Flows, the AU Assembly asserted that “curtailing illicit financial flows through, inter alia, institutionalising prudent legal and regulatory regimes, including fiscal policies that disallow financial secrecy, fight corruption, institute and/or strengthen African institutions, build African member states capacity for contract negotiation, tax administration and identify and return the resources lost through illicit financial flows can greatly contribute to the alternative sources of financing Africa’s development agenda”. Read more on Corruption Watch...
There has been a global awakening to the opportunities and costs of land grabs in Africa. Academics and activists are duly investigating the scope and impacts of large-scale land seizures; the plight of victims has gained recognition; and there are moves to promote ‘responsible’ corporate investments. In contribution to the ongoing debates, we propose a closer focus on the responses of justice mechanisms.
Women cultivate land in Sudan (UN Photo Library).
First, it is questionable whether statutory law represents, let alone protects, existing rights in land. In many parts of Africa, social norms and customary law understand land to be a social good not a commodity; land is felt to be a human right, yet it is not clearly expressed as such in national – still less – international law.
Second, justice mechanisms are ill-equipped to prevent land grabs, given that the mere prospect of an increase in the value of African land produces contention in advance of any actual investment.
Third, the apparatus of justice and law enforcement is being employed to arrest or intimidate those who are resisting investments out of desperation to protect their birth-right and have no prospect of alternative livelihoods. This is a recipe for conflict, but victims of land grabs often still resist peacefully and seek to pursue their rights through the courts. Apart from violence, the justice system may be their sole recourse.
The plight of impoverished Africans whose land is ripe for investment was embodied by a group of elderly women from Amuru district in Northern Uganda on 16 April 2015. In a symbolic protest, they tore off their clothes publicly and threw themselves naked on the ground in front of land surveyors, government officials and soldiers. They demanded to know why government is ‘targeting their land’, leading the protests of a crowd of hundreds of residents of Apaa parish against an illegal attempt to demarcate the boundary between Amuru and neighbouring Adjumani district. The women of Amuru are unlikely to win international plaudits but – like Nobel-laureate Leymah Gbowee’s threat to disrobe at the Liberian peace talks of 2003 – their breach of a social taboo did change minds. The Amuru-Adjumani demarcation team turned back. Read more...
Security forces facing off with protesters in Bujumbura, Burundi, May 20, 2015
Poor Burundi. Landlocked, tiny, and known mainly for ethnic conflict, it was for years the subject of one of the most intense international peace-building efforts in history. By the time the Arusha Peace Agreement was finally signed in 2003, 300,000 Burundians had died in a civil war rivaling in ferocity that of its neighbor Rwanda. Huge sums had been invested in grassroots workshops, high-level meetings and summits to end the fighting. According to Burundi specialist Peter Uvin, taxi drivers in the capital Bujumbura joke that the per diems received during these protracted negotiations built the poshest neighborhood in the city. Now, a decade after the peace process came to what seemed a successful conclusion, and despite billions of dollars in humanitarian aid, the country appears to be falling apart again.
Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza and his wife, Denise
Bucumi, attending an Africa Leaders Summit at the
White House, Washington, DC, August 5, 2014
In April, President Pierre Nkurunziza, in power since 2005, announced he’d be running for a third term in elections scheduled for June. Opposition supporters, church leaders, student and civil society groups, much of the international community, and even many in Nkurunziza’s own party say this violates the Arusha agreement, which limits a president to two terms in office. They also accuse Nkurunziza—a former warlord who became a born-again Christian and travels with his own Hallelujah football club and choir—of presiding over a regime of corruption remarkable even by East African standards. Many also claim President Nkurunziza has condoned politically motivated killings of opposition figures and provided tacit government support to an armed militia known as Imbonerakure, which could be deployed to intimidate voters during the election. Read more... on New York Review Blog
The recent statement by the top official of the Obama Administration Wendy Sherman, the Undersecretary for Africa Affairs reflects the unofficial policy of the Administration than the President's public statements or the Department of State's official report.
The Undersecretary's unfounded praise for the Ethiopian ruling regime's 'democratic credential weeks before the upcoming May 2015 election and the tone of her subsequent respond to Washington Post Editorial criticism didn't do justice to reform the crises in governance and human right violation of the regime. More shamefully, it negate the sovereignty and rights of the people of Ethiopia in favor of an authoritarian regime -- further exposing the unspoken agenda of the Administration towards the people.
The international community apathy in general do not help to find out who may be behind sustaining dictatorship for over two decades nor the looming crises to come in the country riddle with ethnic strife and poverty brought by the regime.
The broder dilemma of the Administration reconciling the public rhetoric (democracy) and private deeds (partnership with authoritarian regime) and the grinding lobbying interest groups exert behind the seen is narrated by Sarah Repucci of Freedom House article titled Giving Dictators a Veto on U.S. Democracy Aid. It pierce into the underline force that drives the U.S. policy and the crises looming in Africa and elsewhere.
The issue she raised was why the Obama Administration requested to remove Brownback Amendment that overrides the objections of foreign governments how U.S. democracy assistance for independent advocacy groups is spent.
Repucci noted;
"When the Obama administration sent its
budget request to Congress this year, it featured a remarkable omission. The
request for 2015 does not include language that has appeared for nearly 10
years, stating that U.S. democracy assistance will not be bound by the approval
of foreign governments. This lapse threatens the interests—and potentially the
lives—of people working to promote political freedom around the world."
Accordingly, quoting a State Department spokesperson' defense on the Administration request to remove the Amendment
in Daily Beast's article;
“the administration’s requests frequently recommend that
Congress remove restrictions and requirements that constrain flexibility to
manage foreign policy, are overly burdensome, and/or are unnecessary due to
policy or procedures already in place.”
The same Daily Beast's article highlighting President Obama's contradiction 'speaking in Poland during an European
visit a week early pledging to support democracy movements around
the world.
'In a passionate speech he [Obama] promised';
“Wherever people are willing to
do the hard work of building democracy—from Tbilisi to Tunis, from Rangoon to
Freetown—they will have a partner"
The discrepancies can only be attributed to heavy-handed lobbying many authoritarian regimes exert on the Obama Administration's public rhetoric that contradicts the actual policy decisions. But, the outright underwriting of U.S. policy foreign regime's enjoy in shaping important decisions is unprecedented to the point where top official of the Administration willing to travel to Africa to praise authoritarian regimes as Undersecretary Sherman did on the behalf of the Ethiopian regime that won by over 99% votes in all four past elections since it came to power 1991.
The breakdown to monitor lobbying U.S. Congress and the Executive Branch and the little attention given by the mainstream Medias and advocacy groups is unprecedented. More troubling; the number of foreign agents spending millions of dollars to influence U.S. policy, particularly African regimes that receive substantial U.S. foreign Aid for their budgetary support and to pay for basic services to sustain their respective populations.
The recent allegation the Clinton Foundation accepting Million of dollars donation on behalf of the Ethiopian government is an eye opener to many possible unreported donations to come out. It isn't clear how it influenced Secretory Clinton's decisions on U.S. policy towards the regime.
But, Secretory Clinton on the helm of the Administration's foreign policy and her successor John Kerry following her footsteps while top officials of the Administration making unsubstantiated statement and coddling up with the Ethiopian regime known for its atrocities, corruption and human right violation, it wouldn't be difficult to connect the dots; foreign interest groups -- as small as African regimes influencing policy decisions and undermining U.S. interest.
Many Foundations and philanthropists' unholy relationship with African depots and the fund raising mechanism from vested interest doesn't reconcile with the public image they portray. Millions of dollar donation from regimes, companies and individuals operating mining and agribusiness interest with questionable business practices incompatible with the spirit of charity and helping the poor is becoming more and more the norm than the exception.
The newly published book by Peter Schweitzer titled Clinton Cash and the negative Media coverage it generated and the foot dragging that followed not to disclose the donors further tarnished the image of the Foundation and raise more questions on the Secretory Clinton's role on the Administration's policy decisions in Africa . It raised dark cloud on every Foundation that accept fund from scruples individuals and corporations with direct economic interest in poor governed nations in Africa and around the world.
The mainstream Medias are not immune from criticism either-- courted to write favorable articles on behalf of foundations, corporate donors and ruling regimes. The Maryland Institute article on Journalists' Role Reversal: Dining at White House on the US-Africa Leadership Summit last year clearly blurred journalists' role to influence their reporting. Other mainstream Medias as major networks as CNN are not free of accusations for yellow journalism.
The Obama Administration, Foundations and philanthropist are increasingly going the opposite direction to the aspiration of the people of Africa for good governance and democracy -- as they struggle to put favorable light on despotic and corrupt regimes.
Multinational corporations and organizations funding Aid agencies and projects that operate in poor countries while lobbying governments for favorable policy to business interest appear to be the main driving force influencing Foundations' activities and western governments' policy in Africa and elsewhere.
Outspent, outmaneuvered and threatened, advocacy groups and grassroots journalists around the world are stuck between a hard place and a rock -- struggling to raise the peoples' cause of democratic governance, transparent development and human right protections with very little successes.
Unfortunately, no one knows why western governments, foundations and philanthropists choose to take the lower political and moral road not to see the bigger picture -- sustainable development and political stability can't be achieved under despotic regimes.
As political instability and economic insecurity continue in authoritarian ruled nations around the world, Western governments and international aid agencies burying their head in the sand and hoping for the better is naïve at best reckless at worst. Such shortsighted policy and the lack of political will to reverse it would have far more implications for the future of humanity than what the eye can see.
The Founder of the Progressive People's Party (PPP) Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom has asked Ghanaians to wage war against “the twin evils of corruption and tribalism”.
According to him, these cankers are killing the national spirit.
“Our nation is in a deadly embrace with corruption, the rot that is killing our national spirit. That rot gave birth to dumsor. That rot is what has sent us back again to the IMF.”
Dr. Nduom expressed these sentiments on his official Facebook page in his 58th independence anniversary message on Friday, March 6.
He lamented how the majority of Ghanaians have been made poor in the midst of plenty.
“We have suffered under leaders - political, religious, business and social, who have promised a lot to be given the opportunity to lead but have disappointed the people with selfish partisan political and ethnic/tribal approach to governance.”
What begs an answer is can African politicians have the ability and the confidence to advocate a national sprit and develop sustainable economy to generate enough income to compensate them more than the free privilege they getting from the international community?
A case in point is the Ethiopian ethnic regime's official tribal regime that survive on corruption and begging from the international community legitimate economic activities. Fundamentally, tribalism is driven by self-preservation by patronizing own tribe to sustain its hegemony financed by corruption. There is no other mechanism it can be sustained where competitive political and economic environment amount to a surrender of tribalism to democratic rule and individual freedom that would marginalize tribal regimes on the sideline and reduce corruption as individual petty theft.
Therefore, tribalism is the mother of corruption than its twin as Dr. Nduom contend. Unlike ideology driven corruption (centralization) that brings politicians together on some ideal societal conditions against the officially stated policy, under tribalism, corruption is the underline official policy against the national sprit -- freedom, democracy and prosperity of all the citizens.
Africa's sustained tribalism is the legacy of colonialism that is still encouraged and fueled by international Aid. The regime in Ethiopia is a good case study of how the international community promote and mainstream tribal corruption as legitimate official financing mechanism to self-finance itself.
Two important point can be made on the international community complicity to sustain tribalism thus corruption. First, financing the official tribal Federalism as legitimate political arrangement to sustain it from its natural death. Second, promoting tribal corruption as a legitimate economic activity by mainstreaming it as investment and economic development.
In both cases, they failed the conventional wisdom of developmental
measures known to the world by relegating capital fungibility
and liquidity and the rule of the market to tribal regimes imagination. At the meantime, they reduced the rule of law to
tribal exercise of mainstreaming corruption to the benefit of a tribe or tribes.
In short, the ‘national sprit’ is reduced as entertainment of tribal chiefs’ (politicians)
maximizing their interest in a banana republic they created and allowed to sustain it by the international community subsidy.
Dr. Nduom' statement; “Our nation is in a deadly embrace with corruption, the rot that is killing our national spirit. That rot gave birth to dumsor*. That rot is what has sent us back again to the IMF.”
The statement might not mean much for the beneficiary of tribalism that congregate around state power sustained by international charity and doing very well for themselves with no practical efforts. It also might not have much meaning for the intellectual elites that see it as an academic exercise or power struggle with the elites in power that benefit out of the status qua.
But, Dr. Nduom point touch on the nerve center of what many progressive intellectuals in Africa have been saying for far too long that never materialized. His appeal to the people of Ghana instead of the elites appears out of the frustration many before him attempted and failed to deal with 'the rot that is killing our national sprit', as he put it.
There is unspoken truth African elites are trapped between self-interest generated by tribalism at home or the international Aid flow from abroad. That reality is evident when the data is mapped where most are congregated to rip the highest economic benefits of what they do at enormous cost to the vast majority of the people of Africa.
Under the status qua, the elites have no incentive for national interest to overcome self interest short of popular revolution for democratic representation. Ghana with the ingenuity of her progressive elites achieved the first hurdle. The second; dislodging the most intricate economy order that was build around tribal interest and 'poverty industry' that 'rot the national sprit' is much complex to address and difficult but not impossible to reverse for countries like Ghana that overcame the first hurdle. But, it require extreme care how to deal with the entrenched interest groups that can undermine or completely reverse the hard fought and won democracy.
The Ghana Anti-corruption Coalition, Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Centre for Democratic Development, Ghana (CDD)and corruption groups and independent national Medias that specialize in economic policy and the intricate business transactions that affect the population, particularly in international trade and investment that primarily leads to high level corruption and disruption of the markets can reverse the long entrenched economic order that besiege most African countries often driven by some of the powerful foreign extractive industries and Aid agencies' that operate with impunity.
Many African countries can learn from Ghana's transition to democracy. Professor George Ayittey described the success of Ghana's transition to democracy on four factors, the existence of a free media, vibrant and vigilant civil society groups and NGOs, maturing of political leaders and pure luck.
Reinforcing the importance of free Media, he quoted New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman;
"Let's stop sending Africa lectures on democracy. Let's instead make all aid, all IMF-World Bank loans, all debt relief conditional on African governments permitting free FM radio stations. Africans will do the rest,"
Prof. Ayittey went on; "Sadly, Africans have not been able to do the rest because, currently, only 10 of the 54 African countries have a free media. In Ethiopia, for example, there is only one government-controlled television network for 83 million people."
The 'twin evils of corruption and tribalism' Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom referred are the products of a deliberate blackout of the truth by the ruling elites to protect their power and economic interest by restricting the free Media' for Africans not to do the rest; as Friedman put it.
The international community's complicity and interest to suppress the truth, worst yet to finance 'the twin evils of corruption and tribalism' continue to hunt millions of Africans into poverty and conflicts and underdevelopment.
More tragic is, the same international community present themselves as change agents by suppressing the truth in collaboration with the ruling regimes.
At the end on the day, the problem of Africans can only be solved by making the international community as accountable as the regimes. After all, it takes two to tango, and the regimes can't survive without the full participation of the international community.
The question is not why but, what jurisdiction the international community can be accountable and by whom?
* Dumsor is a popular Ghanaian term used to describe persistent electric power outages. The term is coined from two separate words from the Twi dialect of the Akan language (a language spoken widely in Ghana), dum (to turn off or quench) and sɔ (to turn on or to make light).
What role does the mantra of unity and prosperity through ‘developmentalism’ have on the success or otherwise of protest movements, or the willingness to oppose actions of the state?
"In some cases, such as Uganda, it is clearly the failure to effect substantive change in the living conditions of the urban poor that helps give rise to protest. In other cases, states have adopted developmental policies to quell protest – Ethiopia is the key example, which put in place an intensive developmental program as a response to the 2005 popular uprising against Meles Zenawi’s regime. However, this is authoritarian developmentalism, in which jobs and infrastructure go hand-in-hand with a tremendous expansion of the state security apparatus throughout society. Thus, whether today’s authoritarian developmentalism can actually address popular grievances or whether it is just keeping a lid on increasing popular frustration is uncertain – but we would note the continued eruption of minor protests throughout Ethiopia’s urban areas even in the face of state repression"
It highlight the established narratives "authoritarian developmentalism' post Cold War and supported by the international community in the command centers verses the delayed popular democratic aspiration of the population at grassroots.
Whether Africa Rising or Uprising depends who you ask and where the camera (Media) is focused. The fact the book, Africa Uprising is published and the debate is outside of Africa by itself points where the command center may be and the quest of Africans to own it.
Transparency International (TI), the world renowned corruption fighter appears to be taken for a ride by its chapter Transparency Ethiopia (TE). The world renown corruption fighter TI open its chapter in Ethiopia in 2008 and over seven years later there is noting much to show for it.
It appears, the brand IT that symbolizes confidence in fighting serious corruption around the world is used to conceal high level corruption in Ethiopia. Since its establishment in 2008, TE put up a few seminars and radio shows on pity corruption when in actuality noting it does address high level official corruption rampant in the country.
For instance, the latest 'Programmes/ Activities' it claim "held meetings with SOS, UBS and BNB students in Awassa City. The programme was held at SOS school on 12 Oct. 2011 with the participation of more than 120 students. The students were selected by their team organizers to form Transparency Clubs which will be dealing with anti-corruption and ethical issues in their respective schools. The students were accompanied by their civic teachers so as to speed up their engagement in the clubs" according to its website. Since October of 2011 the website doesn't provide anything worthy of its name.
Transparency Ethiopia lists its Chairman of the Board and the Executive Director as Dr. Berhanu Asefa, and Mr. Eyasu Yimer respectively. Both don't provide their background and credential that qualified them for the most important work of fighting corruption in the nation managing the only independent corruption fighting institutions in the nation's affiliated with TI.
It is not clear how TI qualified the Ethiopian Chapter and what my be the requirement to operate a chapter. The Chapter with practically no work done since its accreditation over seven years ago should have been the last chapter the world renowned corruption fighting organization consider qualified, what went wrong?
"Under the direction of the Board, the secretariat and the Membership Accreditation Committee run a transparent and collaborative accreditation process to ensure that chapters and individual members continue to uphold the values and principles of the movement."
In contrast, TI's Chapter in Kenya is a vibrant institution led by well qualified officer with multiple programs to address corruption in every sector, including Governance & Policy and Humanitarian Aid Integrity.
How are we going to keep track of the money to make sure it is not wasted, lost to corruption or mismanaged? The answer lies in
Information that is proactively disclosed, shareable, understandable and comparable allows for a complete picture of what money is being spent and on what – and how much more is still needed. This picture must be comprehensive, particularly when it comes to public finance and spending on government procurement.
Public contracting can take up the bulk of a government’s budget outlays and figures show that corruption can cost on average 20-25 percent of a contact’s value.
No time has been more critical than now to have easy access to usable information about development spending. The world is about to decide on its new development goals – the sustainable development goals – and the financing commitments to deliver on these promises.
As governments gear up for two major meetings – one on how to finance the goals in July in Addis Ababa and one on finalising the goals themselves in Septemberin New York – there are some key actions that they must take:
Provide information on financing flows that is timely, comprehensive and forward-looking
This information must be provided using a common reporting standard. There are existing transparency initiatives that could be used. The open data standard for reporting on aid flows, IATI, offers a good starting point and could act as an umbrella for tracking other development finance – from governments, companies, foundations, NGOs or other providers. Currently only eight percent of 86 countries surveyed publish government spending data in an open format.
Give data users tools to use the information
Getting the information out there is the first step but for the data to be powerful, it needs to be used. Data users include ordinary citizens trying to find out how much money has been given to their schools as well as parliamentarians trying to keep track of where their budgets are being spent.
Ensure the space for civil society to get engaged
Having the ability to follow the money is only useful if citizens are afforded a safe space for speaking up against irregularities that are found or when money goes missing.
Keeping financial flows transparent and accountable is one part of fulfilling the development financing agenda. Related transparency and accountability initiatives are needed to also close the gap in state budgets that has been created from illicit financial flows. In the European Union alone, the estimate is that up to 1 trillion Euros is lost annually to tax evasion and avoidance. Read more...
"Such a restrictive media environment under controlled telecom service and high surveillance left freedom of expression—guaranteed by the country’s constitution and international agreements that Ethiopia signed—to crawl to death."
By Simegnish (Lily) Mengesha April 8th, 2015
Ethiopia’s 2005 election was the most contested ever and the government alleged journalists and editors were part of a conspiracy to overthrow the government. This left the free press, which was slowly expanding for the first time since the ruling party took power in 1991, under attack. The government started taking repressive measures against freedom of expression and association.
I joined the media sector during this time, when access to information was growing more restrictive. More than half of print publications were closed; journalists were getting harassed and prosecuted. Most websites with Ethiopian content operated by the diaspora population started getting blocked. The government also jammed satellite radio and television stations. Right after the 2005 election, the government also blocked text messaging on mobile phones, a state of affairs that continued until 2007.
Zone 9 Bloggers, six out of the nine are still in prsion since 2014
The majority of the websites blocked were those publishing critical articles and views on the Ethiopian government. Most of these websites, such as Nazret.com, ethiomedia.com, and ethiopianreview.com, operate from outside the country and we had no direct access to them. Even international media, such as Al Jazeera’s website, were blocked. Reports from human right organizations were totally inaccessible. Some of us who knew how to get around these restrictions depended on proxy websites to access these sites. We would also ask people with unrestricted access to Internet—like those working in embassies and international NGOs, to print out documents we could not access.
With a population of more than 90 million, Ethiopia is ranked as having one of the lowest Internet and mobile phone penetration rates in Africa. The government kept the Internet and mobile technologies under strict control in order to closely monitor the information accessed. Access to these services depends solely on the only state-owned telecommunication operator, Ethio Telecom.
It was when Ethiopia was suffocating under such narrow information access that social media became the new media platform worldwide. Within the available space, social media in the past few years has gained in popularity. In addition to helping Ethiopians contact and connect with long-lost acquaintances, friends, and next-of-kin relatives, social media allowed people to share information that had previously been confined to low circulation newspapers without any Internet presence. In particular, Facebook and Twitter gained popularity. Read more...
See also Ethiopian Jailed Journalist on Global Journalist's report...
‘Women are the pride of our families and societies,’ we were told. ‘Many cows will be paid for you’. It is said with pride – the way it has always been and the way it must be.
The intention is for the cultural systems to link families and communities together and ensure a girl is married into a family that will value her as much hers. It is said that the culture is unchangeable and where it has been transformed, it is blamed on war but still, it must be respected.
Rape, sexual harassment, forced and early marriage and exploitation have become so common that the things we have been told about how special we are must be a lie. The reality is that today a girl is monetized before marriage and treated like property after it. In times of conflict, being considered precious by our tribes only makes us targets, a means to inflict pain on the perceived other.
In the end, it is everyone who loses. Men, women and the children we bear, our cultures and the country we all share.
As a human rights activist in South Sudan since 2005, I have heard countless accounts of inter-community violence, human loss and sexual violence. Cruelty has become the accepted culture and the only remedies are tolerance or violence. They were called remnants of war and its effects on culture and time will heal all.
Of course, the issues never faded and time did not heal. Undeniably, it is ignoring the violence that is costing South Sudan its future, the regional its stability, and the world its newest nation.
During the second war (1983-2005) between South Sudanese and the government of Sudan, women were kept from the frontlines. Instead, it was decreed that they were to have children to replace the millions being killed as a result of the war.
This created vulnerabilities for women, as the duty to procreate was now part of the war efforts. Women were killed and many suffered rape at the hands of both enemies and their own communities.
This mentality carried on after the war. Throughout the relative peace between 2005 and 2013, sexual violence only increased in frequency and intensity.
“I want to go home” said Sarah, a 13-year old girl, as she stared through the bushes and trees towards her father’s home. Sarah’s neighbour had just raped her when she got home from school while her mother and father were out. Read more...
.jpg)
.jpg)