Sex-slavery is a tragic and unfortunately a very common act in most war-torn countries in Africa. The act has seen many women and young girls raped and killed.
In a country like South Sudan that has been in war and conflict for so many years, there has been a high increase in such incidents where little girls and women are kidnapped and used for the ungodly acts.
A woman by the name of Nyabena is a typical example of how the systematic abduction and rape has become a bane of our African society.
Read some heart breaking experiences below;
The 30-year old mother was seized when soldiers attacked her village in Rubkona County in April. Men and boys were shot. Homes were looted and burned to the ground. Women and girls were rounded up. She was among 40 taken from two neighbouring settlements and wells up with tears when she talks about being torn away from her five children.
They were marched to Mayom County. Nyabena was held in Kotong, a stronghold of Major-General Matthew Puljang, commander of a tribal Bul Nuer militia aligned with South Sudan's army, the SPLA, which has been battling rebels since December 2013.
From April to July this year the SPLA and Puljang's militia carried out an offensive that United Nations investigators described as a "scorched earth policy" in an August report.
Fighting and flooding limits access to large parts of South Sudan, leading aid workers to refer to southern Unity State as "an information black-hole".
A human rights investigator said: "Nobody knows what's happening in Mayom County," where many of the women were taken. One military expert estimated that "thousands of women" were abducted during the offensive.
"In all the southern Unity counties it's been the same: those women who escape are lucky. Those who don't are raped and abducted or killed," said the rights investigator. "The abduction of women seems to be systematic. It might be for a day, or longer, or forever."
Those who escaped recount their stories with numb, quiet voices. Nightmares plague some who wake up terrorised, thinking they are still captive.
After her abduction Nyabena was put to work during the day, carrying looted goods and food, collecting water and hoeing farms. She was guarded constantly during the day and tied up at night with other women.
"When one of the soldiers wanted to have sex he would come, untie us and take us away. When they were finished they would bring you back and tie you to the post again," she said, stretching her elbows behind her back to show how she was bound. She said being raped by four men a night was common.
Women who refused to work or fought against their rape would disappear. "In the morning we discover they are missing," she said. Of the 40 she arrived with in April, 10 disappeared this way.
Nyamai's Story (Another woman who was a victim at the age of 12)
Nyamai, a 38-year old mother of five, was taken from her village in Koch County. She was guarded constantly and tied up frequently. As many as 10 soldiers would queue up at night for their turn raping her.
"Please, let one guy deal with me, don't come all of you," she pleaded, and was beaten with a stick in response.
In another case, three of Nyatuach's unmarried, teenaged daughters were abducted in May during an attack on their village in Rubkona County. Two are still missing, but her 17-year old daughter escaped with three of her nieces.
They returned "very sick, very thin".
"Their bodies were weak and they were leaking fluids from so many men having intercourse with them," Nyatuach said, a common symptom of fistula, an incontinence-causing tear in the wall between the vagina and bladder or rectum, that can be caused by particularly violent rape.
Others were raped repeatedly until, bleeding and unable to take any more, they were set free, or killed.
"When the girls were broken they would dispose of them," said Nyatuach.
Rebecca found her 12-year old daughter again the day after their village in Koch County was attacked.
"When they took me, those people used me," the girl told her mother. Rebecca boiled some water and washed her daughter with hot cloths.
"We can do nothing," she told her. "It's like that."
Culled from News 24
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