Rape as a weapon of war

Amnesty has been at the forefront of campaigning against violence against women over recent years and its through this work that some of the most harrowing tales of human rights abuses reach our desks.

This week its been the issue of rape as a weapon of war.

As Kenya continues to disintegrate before our eyes, the Daily Telegraph carries a sobering report on a wave of sexual violence that has swept the troubled African state.According to the article, hundreds of women and children, including boys as young as five, have been gang-raped and all on ethnic lines. One report is of a boy being attacked by ten men. Amnesty today called on the political leaders to intervene and stop the violence.

All this comes just 24 hours after reports emerged of similar cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

On Thursday, Reuters revealed that the fighting between government and militia forces has led to a surge in rape by fighters from all sides. In a depressingly familiar tale, they quoted a surgeon in one of the countrys hospitals saying that his hospital was now seeing on average three or four rape cases a day.

As someone once said, things can only get better. Fingers crossed.