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2 Civil Conflict, Sexual Violence, and HIV/AIDS Challenges for Children in Sierra Leone Marda Mustapha and Aiah A. Gbakima Mary, a sixteen-year-old Sierra Leonean girl, saw both her parents killed by rebels before she was abducted. She lost her virginity when two armed rebels raped her. After she escaped, the doctors told her she needed surgery, although her family could not afford to pay.1 Hawa, seventeen, became pregnant after being raped. Nine months later, she gave birth to a stillborn baby. Meanwhile, Hawa was forced to become a rebel’s wife. She was denied food, drugged with cocaine, and became infected with a sexually transmitted disease.2 Recent studies have shown that civil conflicts facilitate the spread of HIV. Matthew Smallman-Raynor and Andrew Cliff argue that civil war accounts for much of the spread of HIV in Uganda. Their argument is buttressed by regression analysis that demonstrates a strong correlation between war and disease .3 In narrating the ordeals of refugee women who were victims of sexual violence both in war regions and refugee camps, Lynellyn Long shows how the phenomenon of sexual violence seems to be part of the pattern of civil conflicts in 40 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. sub-Saharan Africa.4 The ten-year civil war in Sierra Leone was no exception. Throughout the ten-year rebellion by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone, there seems to have been a systematic perpetration of sexual violence against women, girls in particular. This violence—sexual slavery, gang rape, the insertion of sticks, umbrellas, and firewood into women’s vaginas5 —was mainly the responsibility of the RUF.6 Its victims were also exposed to severe health risks that, if not checked, could threaten the entire population of Sierra Leone, especially the children. The Military, NGOs, and Sexual Violence The role of civil conflicts in the spread of HIV/AIDS in subSaharan Africa cannot be overstated. Most determinants of the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa—including migration (often forced), the disruption of communities, poverty, and the breakdown of law and order—are exacerbated during civil conflicts. Opportunities for sexual mixing also increase at such times, especially in refugee camps and camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), where people of various cultural backgrounds find themselves thrown together. The result is often sexual violence, including the rape of children. In the civil war in Sierra Leone, the military itself was the most guilty of sexual violence.7 The military is composed of the national army, the West Side Boys, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)/AFRC,8 the Civil Defense Forces (CDF), and the international peacekeeping troops. Very recently, aid workers from NGOs have also been implicated as perpetrators of sexual violence. The RUF fighters were notorious for subjecting girls to gang rape. The CDF and the national army engaged in both forcible rape and statutory rape (which occurs when Civil Conflict, Sexual Violence, and HIV/AIDS / 41 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. young girls engage in “voluntary” sex with a soldier for status, security, or food).9 The international peacekeeping forces were mostly engaged in paying minors (below eighteen years) for sex, while aid workers traded food for sex with minors. Rebel Forces The rebel forces have been identified as the group most guilty of sexual violence.10 They reportedly committed widespread gang rape and abducted young girls to be used as sex slaves. A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report notes not only widespread sexual violence but forced marriage.11 Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) reported that the rebel forces were responsible for 93 percent of the sexual assaults during the civil conflict.12 A documentary released by the human rights organization Witness narrates the ordeal of pretty girls, some as young as thirteen, specifically abducted by the rebel forces for sexual consumption.13 In February 2001, Physicians for Human Rights interviewed fifteen-year-old Bola, who was reported to be two months pregnant. She had been abducted four times since 1999: They held us, they cut [off] some hands, they killed some...

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