UN report highlights sexual violence

UNITED NATIONS // Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said 2014 was marked by harrowing accounts of rape, sexual slavery and forced marriage being used by extremists including the ISIL group and Boko Haram.

In a report released on Monday, the UN chief expressed “grave concern” over sexual violence perpetrated by armed groups, including those promoting extremist ideologies in Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Nigeria, Mali, Libya and Yemen.

“The confluence of crises wrought by violent extremism has revealed a shocking trend of sexual violence employed as a tactic of terror by radical groups,” Mr Ban said.

The secretary-general said efforts “to degrade or destroy” the ISIL group, Boko Haram, Al Shabab, Ansar Dine and Al Qaeda affiliates “are an essential part of the fight against conflict-related sexual violence”.

The report focuses on 19 countries engulfed in conflict or trying to recover from fighting where sexual violence including rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution and forced pregnancy occurs, mainly against women and girls but also against boys and men. It lists 45 groups in Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Congo, Iraq, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan and Syria as well as Boko Haram in Nigeria that are “credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape” in conflict — 13 of them for the first time.

On a positive note, the report said Congo’s government took “unprecedented steps” including prosecuting high-ranking officers for sexual violence and paying reparations to survivors. But at the same time it said 2014 saw a resurgence of violence by armed groups including an increase in rape.

* Associated Press