Women in South Sudan face an unprecedented level of sexual violence which includes abduction, rape, forced marriage and murder in a merciless ethnic warfare, said the head of the Red Cross mission in the country.
Franz Rauchenstein, describing a rise in sexual violence in the last two years, said,
“We went to one village to distribute aid and were told they had been attacked some days earlier and 90 women had been abducted. After several days only about 60 of them came back.”
Noting the escalation of violence against civilians, Ms Rauchenstein added,
Civilians have been directly targeted. The people are collateral damage of the attacks. What is new in this conflict is that women have been attacked while they have been seeking refuge on the islands. Those who are abducted may be forcefully married, enslaved or killed.”
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