16 Days of Activism Against GBV: Sexual Violence During Conflict

Photo from Genocide Watch: South Sudan Violence Women and Girls Suffer the Most

During times of conflict and war, women and girls are often targeted to be victims of all forms of violence. The violence they experience is not something necessarily sparked by conflict or war, as these forms of violence already existed within families, communities and the country as a whole. However, incidents of violence against women, girls and boys increases at an alarming rate during times of conflict and war. Primarily because violence, particularly sexual violence, is used as a weapon of war or rather a deliberate military strategy.

Sexual violence against women and girls is not a “spoils of war” or a “need for sexual gratification” by armed combatants who have spent months alone in the bush---as sexual violence has been conceptualized in centuries past. On the contrary, rape is often used in ethnic conflicts as a way for attackers to perpetuate their social control and redraw ethnic boundaries. Women are seen as the reproducers and care-takers of the community. If one group wants to control another group, they can do it by impregnating women of the other community because they see it as a way of destroying the opposing community.

In the 1990s, systematic rape was used in Bosnia so that women would give birth to Serbian babies while in Rwanda systematic rape against Tutsi women occurred during the genocide. (Medecins Sans Fronteire, “Rape as a Weapon of War,” 2005) In 1971, state-backed Pakistani troops during the fight for Bangladesh's independence perpetrated rape in order that women produce Punjabi children (Bangladesh Liberation War, Emma Rebholz, Kira Compton, and Madelynne Weisberg). Thus, this demonstrates that historically, rape and sexual violence against women and girls has been a specific military strategy to sow terror and weaken the social fabric of communities. (Medecins Sans Fronteire, “The Crushing Burden of Rape, Sexual Violence in Darfur,” 2005). In some conflict settings, the collapse of the rule of law leaves justice systems unable to deal with allegations of rape, while in many other conflict settings women feel too exposed to stigma or reprisals to accuse their attackers.

Photo from Rape as a Weapon of War, Robin Hammond

During the ongoing conflict here in South Sudan, rape has been perpetrated by armed combatants in the conflict impacted areas of the country---as evidenced by the data collected through the GBV Information Management System (GBVIMS). The GBVIMS is a tool that humanitarian actors working on GBV prevention and response interventions use to understand the types of GBV experienced by survivors and who is perpetrating these acts as reported by the survivors themselves. The GBVIMS only uses non-identifiable information so that the survivor is always protected. By understanding the types of GBV and who is perpetrating these acts, the tool also allows GBV actors to design prevention and response interventions in order to improve service provision to GBV survivors in South Sudan (and other countries that are using it).

GBV in South Sudan also occurs in what is known as Protection of Civilian (PoC) sites around the country. These sites provide refuge to internally displaced persons (IDPs)where they are provided with temporary shelter and food rations. PoCs and refugee camps are not desirable places to live and the limited resources available to meet a high demand causes stress among IDPS as well as within families. Compounding the fact that IDPS cannot leave these sites and have limited food, they also are limited in their earning capacities. IDPs, especially men, become very angry and frustrated with their inability to provide for their families.

Photo is from Caught in the Middle: Civilian Protection in South Sudan

GBV is also occurring in areas that are not as impacted as the primary conflict areas of Unity, Upper Nile State and Jonglei (to the northwest) and more recently in Western and parts of Eastern Equatoria (the south). Conflict causes a number of economic and social stresses on intimate partners and families. The conflict has triggered an economic crisis that has led to a lack of employment, educational and vocational opportunities and food insecurity. Consequently, limited resources and opportunities place stress on intimate partners and families resulting in violence being used to express frustration and anger. Women and girls are most often the recipients of this violent expression of frustration and anger. In South Sudan, physical assault is the most commonly reported type of GBV in South Sudan and accounts for 50% of all the reported GBV cases and is often perpetrated by intimate partners, many of whom are unemployed.

Whether a woman or girl is raped at gunpoint or forced into sexual slavery by an occupying force, the sexual violence she and her children experience will shape not just their own but their community's future for years to come. Humanitarian actors working on preventing and treating GBV understand the long term consequences of war and the sexual violence associated with it. Thus we focus on prevention methods that focus on education and coping mechanisms that equip individuals, families and communities with the tools to prevent and recover from the conflicted related violence and GBV traumas they are experiencing. The best that any of us can do is advocate to our government representatives to not forget that the conflict continues in South Sudan. Government officials have a responsibility to exert more pressure on South Sudanese warring parties to complete the peace process as soon as possible. If they do not, they should expect many more South Sudanese to become part of the flood of refugees hoping to enter Europe and the United States--and then the forgotten conflict will be upon our doorstep once again.

South Sudan: A nation in conflict.

(Photos for my profile picture and this post were taken from Google's Image stock photos for South Sudan. They will be changed when I am able to exhibit my own photos. Most photo taking in South Sudan is prohibited unless you have been authorized by the GoSS.)

Last week, I was swimming in a very large pool, pretty clean, except for the layer of dust that coated its surface. I did laps according to my version of the breast stroke, which probably was more like a frog kick with bits of a doggie paddle thrown in. I was completely alone for a good part of the day—which was lovely. The other pools I have visited have had 10 men to every woman, and each set of eyes did a good job of violating us. There were also a few business men meeting to chat—no food or drinks, just huddled together on bamboo chairs under swaying palm trees. Chatting and nodding. Gardeners in long, blue coveralls clipped slowly and methodically the bushes and shrubs decorating the pool area. The waiter wore a crisply pressed white dress shirt, a shimmery gold/yellow vest and yellow linen pants. He sat at the bar that was decorated with red and silver tinsel, on a stool. Every time I looked up or mistakenly made any kind of “Please come” gesture, he would rise with a pad in his hand and walk over to the fence close to where I was recline don a lounge chair, until I would, embarrassed, say “No, not yet, thanks.” There was a fake white Christmas tree sitting in the corner. When I got really hungry I did order. He brought me a ham and cheese hamburger with fries and small side salad, along with a mango juice, with the napkin in some sort of origami shaped animal wrapped around it—to protect it from the dust. I made sure to leave a big tip---his smile could of bridged continents.

In the states northwest of the state I live in, only kilometers away, thousands of people have been killed, maimed and millions have fled to other parts of the country seeking refuge from soldiers and rebels with assault rifles, grenade and rocket launchers and millions of bullets. They seek not only safety but also shelter, food and access to basic services like health, education, water and sanitation. They also require psychosocial support from the psychological traumas they have experienced. I am in South Sudan working as the coordinator of a gender based violence (GBV) program. Many forms of GBV are used as a weapon of war in conflict situations, particularly rape. In South Sudan, the crisis has been made one of food insecurity and famine, but based on my short time here (2 months) learning the lay of the land and just listening to South Sudanese, this crisis should have equally been characterized as one of violence against women and children. The U.N. General Secretary’s Special Envoy on Sexual Violence, Zainab Bangura, has visited South Sudan and has stated that violence against women and children in the South Sudan conflict is the worst she has ever witnessed. Hopefully her report will shift the attention onto women and children and the violence they experience.

So. This is the part I give you a bit of a historical context so if you already know about the conflicts in Sudan and South Sudan or are not interested you may want to skip the next two paragraphs.

Most people know about Sudan because of George Clooney and Darfur. But what many people may not have realized is that in July 2011, Sudan split in two creating the world’s newest nation: the Republic of South Sudan. The split occurred after the last phase of a six year peace agreement ended decades of civil war and a referendum was put to vote for cessation. Much of the civil conflict was based on control over Sudan’s large deposits of crude oil exacerbated by grievances between the northern Sudan’s predominantly Arab-Muslim population and the South’s Black-Christian population. Through a 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) there was a deal at the time to split the revenues from southern oil evenly between the north and south—and that agreement, for the most part, was held up after South Sudan’s independence. The areas of Unity, Upper Nile and Jonglei, in what is now South Sudan, has the crude oil but South Sudan has to rely on Sudan’s pipelines and port to extract and export the oil. In 2012, South Sudan began its oil extraction, but shortly thereafter disputes over fees as well as border demarcation lines kept tensions high and fighting ongoing with thousands of refugees flooding into South Sudan. South Sudanese who were born and raised in Sudan were targeted and persecuted. In March 2013 Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir and South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, made agreements on trade, oil and security deals: oil production resumed with a demilitarized buffer zone between the two countries.

The conflict soon turned from one between countries to one between ethnic groups. Internal conflict broke out in South Sudan in December 2013 when a year-long power struggle between President Kiir and his Vice President Riek Machar resulted in the latter being accused by Kiir of attempting a coup d’etat and Machar was fired. Kiir is Dinka, the largest ethnic group in South Sudan and Machar is a Nuer, the second largest ethnic group. Since then, fighting based along ethnic lines between Dinka and Nuer has been ongoing with many ceasefires being broken or not adhered to at all. Atrocities against women and children have been committed by both ethnic groups: men gang raping women sometimes with foreign objects and then murdering them, forced early marriage of young girls and child recruitment into the conflict. Thousands of people have been killed and millions have been made internally displaced persons (IDPs) or refugees in Sudan, Kenya, and Uganda. The conflicts in both Sudan and South Sudan is complicated, messy and needless to say it is taking a psychological toll on the people of South Sudan as well as those who work here. I of course have given you an abbreviated version of the conflict as I have understood it. If you want a brief timeline of events, please visit’s BBC’s South Sudan profile page and I found the Newsweek article George Clooney, South Sudan and How the World’s Newest Nation Imploded by Alex Perry an interesting perspective on humanitarian aid and the ideals that foreign governments and aid workers have in stopping conflict and building nations.

Peace talks began in Addis Ababa in August and adjourned for the Christmas holidays. All of us living and working in South Sudan are praying for a peaceful and fairly immediate peace resolution when they resume talks. We pray because the dry season has arrived on the African continent. Why is this significant? Because during rainy season, flooding destroys dirt roads which makes it difficult for everyone, soldiers and rebels included to travel or to fight. But with the impending dry season, it means if fighting will start--- it will start during this time. A combination of an economy in dire straits, hungry bellies and angry hearts that are not being soothed by political leaders can be the spark to continued and even escalated violence. My hope is that the will of the people of South Sudan will overcome political and ethnic divisions. Namely, a people that has experienced two generations worth of war and conflict, are exhausted. The overwhelming refrain of South Sudanese I have spoken to has been “We are tired of the fighting.”

I have been working alot these past two months. The line between working, socializing and just living is blurred. My residence is in the same compound that our office is located in. But thankfuly, I have a strong support network in B and my family. I have good music, Kindle books and pictures of the smiling faces of my months old nephews, which always makes me smile. I eat healthy and exercise—I either do yoga or I jog and on occasion I dance (my iTunes and me). When I go jogging, just after sunrise, on a short strip on the main road where I do laps--- I’m greeted by U.N. tanks and pick-ups with blue helmeted soldiers heading out on their patrol—my early morning reminder of where I am, just in case I should momentarily forget.

I’m also greeted by two puppies from a nearby hotel who jump on me, enthusiastically full of life--- their happiness makes me happy and my heart is filled with their exuberance. A heart filled with such a small dose of exuberance is something that I am grateful for---on any day, in any part of the world I may be.