"So, you know, I've been covering Haiti for more than two decades, and while I've been watching this gang crisis, we were seeing these reports of sexual violence. But I actually was speaking with Dr. William Pape, Bill Pape, who was quoted through this series. And he was talking about, you know, 11-year-old girls who were survivors of gang rape,"
"and then they were impregnated, and then they were forced to carry their babies to term because abortion, even in the case of rape, was not allowed. And then he mentioned that when they would give birth, they basically were disconnected from these children - there was no connection - and how we are raising a generation loss. And so I started off in search of an 11-year-old girl who had been victimized by gangs, who had become pregnant."
Armed gangs in Haiti are using sexual violence deliberately to instill fear and control territory as the country faces food shortages and a collapsing government. Humanitarian organizations recorded more than 7,400 cases of gender-based violence between January and September, a likely undercount due to stigma and silence among victims. Children, including 11-year-old girls, have been raped and impregnated and then compelled to carry pregnancies to term because abortion is illegal even after rape. Newborns are often separated from their mothers, contributing to a generational trauma and long-term social damage. Credible information remains difficult to obtain amid widespread insecurity.
Read at www.npr.org
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