Notice: Function _load_textdomain_just_in_time was called incorrectly. Translation loading for the captcha-bank domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home1/c306474/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131
Notice: Function _load_textdomain_just_in_time was called incorrectly. Translation loading for the email-users domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home1/c306474/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131
Notice: Function _load_textdomain_just_in_time was called incorrectly. Translation loading for the wordpress-seo domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home1/c306474/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131 sexual violence Archives - TalkAfrique Deprecated: Function WP_Dependencies->add_data() was called with an argument that is deprecated since version 6.9.0! IE conditional comments are ignored by all supported browsers. in /home1/c306474/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131
Deprecated: Function WP_Dependencies->add_data() was called with an argument that is deprecated since version 6.9.0! IE conditional comments are ignored by all supported browsers. in /home1/c306474/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131
NAIROBI, 31 March 2013 (IRIN) – The British government has announced a major new programme aimed at providing essential healthcare to six million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The five-year, US$270.7 million project will focus on rebuilding health facilities, training health workers, and supplying drugs and equipment.
Civil war has destroyed much of the country’s health infrastructure, as well as the road networks and vital services such as electricity, meaning patients often have to travel long distances to health centres that may not be equipped to handle their complications.
IRIN has put together a list of five health issues in DRC that require urgent attention: Maternal and Child Health – DRC’s maternal mortality ratio is 670 deaths per 100,000 live births, with an estimated 19,000 maternal deaths annually. The country has a severe shortage of health workers – less than one health professional is available per 1,000 people.
With 170 out of every 1,000 children dying before they reach the age of five and 10 percent of infants underweight, DRC has one of the worst child health indicators in the world. It is one of five countries in the world in which about half of under-five deaths occur. Some of the biggest killers of children are diarrhoea, malaria, malnutrition and pneumonia.
Sexual violence – Several studies report high levels of sexual violence perpetrated against women, children and men in DRC, both by armed groups and within the home; one study, conducted in the North and South Kivu and Ituri in 2010, found that 40 percent of women and 24 percent of men had experienced sexual violence. Continue reading “Democratic Republic of Congo Gets Boost for HealthCare”
With friends like these, maybe sexual assault allegation can disappear! The Post reports that the friends of former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn are contacting the overseas relatives of his accuser, “offering them money to make the case go away since they can’t reach her in protective custody… The woman, who says she was sexually assaulted by the disgraced former head of the International Monetary Fund, has an extended family in the former French colony of Guinea in West Africa.” A French businesswoman who knows Strauss-Kahn and his family says the friends “already talked with her family. For sure, it’s going to end up on a quiet note.”
Strauss-Kahn is accused of forcing the maid to perform oral sex on him in his Sofitel hotel suite on May 14. While the Manhattan DA’s office has apparently warned the accuser’s family not to accept calls from his connections, Cyrus Vance’s reach only goes so far. The source continued, “He’ll get out of it and will fly back to France. He won’t spend time in jail. The woman will get a lot of money”—possibly a seven-figure payout.
Fox News reported on the alleged exchange between the 32-year-old maid and Strauss-Kahn, which—allegedly—included him grabbing her breasts and bloody sheets:
The 32-year-old African immigrant repeatedly told her alleged attacker, “Please, please stop. No!” The sources said she had no idea who was staying in the $3,000-a-night junior presidential suite until after the alleged attack, which lasted approximately thirty minutes…The maid said she tried a variety of tactics to get herself out of the room and away from Strauss-Kahn. She said, “my manager is in the hallway,” which he wasn’t — but the former IMF chief wasn’t scared off. The single mother allegedly told the Frenchman that the job was important to her and any conflict with a hotel guest would result in her losing her job.
“Please stop. I need my job, I can’t lose my job, don’t do this. I will lose my job. Please, please stop! Please stop!” she told Strauss-Kahn, according to law enforcement sources.
Strauss-Kahn allegedly responded: “No, baby. Don’t worry, you’re not going to lose your job. Please, baby, don’t worry,” Strauss-Kahn responded, according to investigators. “Don’t you know who I am? Don’t you know who I am?”
Strauss-Kahn’s DNA was allegedly found on the maid’s clothing. His defense has suggested the encounter was consensual.
Strauss-Kahn, a leading French politician whose libido was apparently legendary in France, has been indicted on numerous charges and is out on $6 million ($1 million cash, $5 million bond) bail. He’s living at 71 Broadway, which has turned into a media circus, while his very wealthy wife is looking for other housing. But real estate brokers tell the Post that no one wants to work with him. At any rate, Strauss-Kahn has proclaimed his innocence.
TCHIAKOULLE, Guinea — Nestled in the mountains of northern Guinea, accessible only by foot, lies the birthplace of the maid who says Dominique Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her in a New York hotel.
With no electricity nor phone lines, the village of Tchiakoulle could not be further from the bright lights of Manhattan where one of its daughters has brought one of the world’s most powerful men to his knees.
In the shadow of steep cliffs in the Fouta Djallon region, home to the Fulani ethnic group, Tchiakoulle boasts seven concrete houses, one built by the alleged victim’s sister, and a few dozen mud huts alongside a river.
The 32-year-old hotel chambermaid at the Sofitel hotel accusing the former International Monetary Fund chief of sexual assault and attempted rape “was born here, her father was born here,” said her half-brother Boubacar, 42, born to the same father.
He was speaking to an AFP journalist who tracked down the woman’s home village after rigourous cross-checking and verification with his own family in New York and those of the victim.
Boubacar said his half-sister lived in Tchiakoulle until the age of 13 before moving to Labe, the main town in the region, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) away, but returned home to get married at about 17.
The couple had a daughter, but shortly after the marriage, her husband, the son of a rich Fulani marabout, passed away.
It was then that the young women left with her child to the United States, according to her half-brother.
He said her sister Hassanatou, already living in New York, had paid for her journey with the help of her husband, a shopkeeper in the Big Apple. Hassanatou is the owner of one of the village’s seven concrete houses.
Their mother usually lives in the house, but was seeking medical treatment in Dakar at the time of AFP’s visit.
The members of the accuser’s family living in the village describe her as very pretty, but illiterate, having never been to school. She attended a madrassa in the village where she learned to recite verses on the veranda.
Her uncle, Mody, remembers a girl who was “not rebellious”, while another relative in Labe describes her as “a serious, kind girl and no one knew any trouble from her.”
The 60-year-old said that three days ago he heard “on local radio that a white man abused a girl in the United States. I could not have imagined it was my niece.”
Cut off from the world, no one in the village knew what had become of their long-lost daughter, the last of six children — three girls, three boys — born to a father with two wives.
Her father was a poor farmer, but also a respected Muslim cleric in the region until his death at age 90 in 2009. Residents of the hamlet say her family was very pious.
Unlike her sister Hassanatou, the young woman appears to have cut all ties with her home village.
“Since my sister left over 10 years ago, I have spoken to her once,” said Boubacar, her half-brother.
“It was after dad’s death. I was in Bissau. I called to give her my condolences but as soon as she saw the number she realised it was from Africa and said: “don’t bother calling me”.
“She didn’t know who was on the other end of the line but when I told her she agreed to talk to me.”
Her uncle also has had no news from his niece: “Since she left I haven’t received a letter, photos, nothing.”
Thousands of Guineans live and work abroad in other African countries, Europe and the United States because, despite its massive mineral wealth, half of Guinea’s 10 million population live in poverty.
Nafissatou Diallo, maid assaulted by IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn
A hotel maid, Nafissatou Diallo, who says IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her was due to testify before a New York grand jury on Wednesday, as the French presidential hopeful faced growing pressure to resign.
A lawyer for the 32-year-old African widow dismissed a suggestion by Strauss-Kahn’s defense counsel that the incident at the luxury Times Square Sofitel last Saturday might not have been a sexual assault.
“There’s nothing consensual about what took place in that hotel room,” attorney Jeffrey Shapiro told NBC’s “Today” show, adding he believed she would testify “at some point today.”
The arrest dashed Strauss-Kahn’s prospects for the French presidency and raised broader questions over the future of the International Monetary Fund. Developing countries, looking to a succession, have questioned Europe’s hold on the post.
The United States, the IMF’s biggest shareholder, said Strauss-Kahn was clearly unable to go on running the global lender from a prison cell, whatever the legal outcome.
“I can’t comment on the case, but he is obviously not in a position to run the IMF,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday, calling for an interim head to be named.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Europe would naturally put forward a candidate to replace him if Strauss-Kahn decided to step down.
Germany, which wants a European to keep the job, said the IMF should deal with its immediate leadership internally and it was too early to discuss a successor to Strauss-Kahn.
French officials said John Lipsky, the IMF’s American number two, whose term expires in August, would represent the Fund at next week’s Group of Eight summit in Deauville, France.
China, Brazil and South Africa questioned Europe’s right to the top job but Europeans said it made sense for them to retain the post while the Fund plays such a crucial role in helping to ease the euro zone debt crisis.
Strauss-Kahn, who denies the charges, is expected to remain in New York’s Rikers Island jail, known for gang violence, at least until his next court appearance on Friday, when lawyers may again request bail. Any trial could be six months away.
If convicted, he could face 25 years in prison. A law enforcement source said he had been placed on suicide watch, but purely as a precautionary measure.
In the U.S. legal system, a grand jury convenes in secret to hear evidence and decide whether to indict the defendant.
In the only public hint of Strauss-Kahn’s possible line of defense, his attorney Benjamin Brafman told his arraignment hearing on Monday: “The evidence we believe will not be consistent with a forcible encounter.”
However, Shapiro said his client, an asylum seeker from the West African nation of Guinea with a 15-year-old daughter, told Reuters she had not been aware of Strauss-Kahn’s identity until a day after the alleged attack.
“She didn’t have any idea who he was or have any prior dealings with this guy,” the personal injury lawyer said.
“She wants to remain anonymous because she’s very much afraid that something could happen to her physically, she feels very threatened by this,” he said of the global attention.
SET-UP?
An opinion poll in France, taken before his first court appearance on Monday and released on Wednesday, showed that more than half the population believe Strauss-Kahn was set up.
The CSA poll found that 57 percent of respondents thought that the Socialist politician, who had been frontrunner for the 2012 election, was definitely or probably the victim of a plot.
Fully 70 percent of Socialist sympathizers took that view. Most French media have dismissed conspiracy theories.
The poll findings highlighted a cultural divide, with French Socialist politicians and commentators denouncing the public parading of Strauss-Kahn, unshaven and in handcuffs, before he has had a chance to defend himself.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg agreed such a display was humiliating and would be unfair if a defendant were to be found innocent. “But if you don’t want to do the ‘perp walk’, don’t do the crime,” he told reporters.
U.S. media have criticized the French for a tradition of secrecy on politicians’ sex lives, and for showing more compassion for Strauss-Kahn than for the alleged rape victim, whose identity some French newspapers have published.
The French daily Liberation said the IMF chief had told its editors in off-record comments last month that he had just the right qualities to lead France, notably a calm manner, in contrast to conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy.
“Today I fit with everything the French people want — recognized competence, calm, international experience,” he was quoted as having said at an April 28 meeting.
EUROPEAN JOB
The IMF said it had not been in touch with Strauss-Kahn since his arrest but it would be important to do so “in due course.” Two IMF board sources told Reuters the board would ask Strauss-Kahn whether he planned to continue in his post.
In Strauss-Kahn’s absence, Lipsky is temporarily in charge of the institution which manages the world economy and is in the midst of helping euro zone states like Greece, Ireland and Portugal tackle debt woes.
The White House is considering proposing David Lipton, President Barack Obama’s international economic adviser and a former deputy treasury secretary, to replace Lipsky, whose term ends in August, sources familiar with the matter said.
Strauss-Kahn began to lose European support on Tuesday.
“Given the situation, that bail has been denied, he has to consider that he would otherwise do damage to the institution,” Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter said.
A European has held the post of managing director since the IMF was created in 1945, and four of them have been French.
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde is thought to be interested in the post but her prospects have been clouded by a decision this month by a Paris public prosecutor to recommend a full-scale inquiry into her role in awarding financial compensation to a prominent businessman in 2008.
Emerging countries are starting to flex their muscle over who should succeed Strauss-Kahn, who had been expected to leave soon anyway to run for the French presidency.
China said on Tuesday the selection of the next IMF boss should be based on “fairness, transparency and merit.” It marked the first time that the fund’s third largest member has weighed in so publicly on an IMF selection debate.
South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and a senior Brazilian government official, who asked not to be named, said the next chief should be from a developing country, pressing a case to give emerging economies a greater say in world affairs.
But Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said the affair should not be used to press for changes in the way the IMF head is picked, telling GloboNews TV the discussion “is too premature at this point” and Strauss-Kahn was “probably one of the best IMF chiefs that we had in the past years.”
Twenty nine students of the University of Ghana, Legon have been handed over to assist in the investigations into the molestation of Amina Haruna, 25, who is suspected to have stolen a laptop and mobile phones from the Mensah Sarbah Hall of the university.
The students, who are all residents of the Annex B (Okponglo) of the Mensah Sarbah Hall of the university, were identified by the university authorities on a video tape. The names of the students are being with-held by the police for security reasons.
The students were first handed over to the Legon Police, who in turn conveyed them to the headquarters of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Police Service for the identification parade which was underway at the time of filing this report.
The victim will have to identify his alleged attackers to enable the police to proceed with their investigations into the incident.
The handover of the students was in fulfillment of an agreement which was reached between the police and the university authorities. Soon after the alleged molestation, the university authorities set up a fact-finding committee to investigate the incident. It recently presented its findings to the Dean of Students and the Vice Chancellor of the university.
The committee, according to a statement issued by the Registrar of the university Mr. J. S Budu, identified a number of students, who were present during the molestation, as seen on the video clips produced, as well as credible eyewitnesses account.
It said based on the recommendations of the committee, students identified were given hearings by the disciplinary committee, as per a writ of summons. A number of students were said to have caught the suspect with mobile phones and a laptop at the hall of the University at about 1 am on that fateful day, Thursday, March 30, stripped her naked and inserted their fingers into her private parts.
She was however rescued by security officers of the university who took her to the Legon Police station at about 3 a.m
Unknown to the students, the act had been filmed by an unidentified person who later released the footage onto the internet. The occurrence, which the authorities said had dented the image of the university, was widely condemned by human right groups, with women’s right activists calling on the security agencies to expedite action on the matter
The Legon Police say they are currently screening a number of students of the University of Ghana, suspected to have been involved in molesting Amina Haruna, an alleged thief who the police said had earlier been arrested twice for the same offence on the Legon campus.
The university has also indicated in a press release issued on Wednesday, April 20, 2011, that a Fact Finding Committee set up by the school had since Tuesday, April 12, completed its work and submitted a report to the Vice-Chancellor, who is the Head of the Disciplinary Committee.
“The Fact-Finding Committee appointed by the executive committee of the University to look into the circumstances leading to the mentioned event has completed its work and submitted a report on its findings to the Dean of Students and the Vice-Chancellor on Tuesday, 12th April 20II. The committee identified a number of students who were present during the molestation as seen in the video clips produced and also from credible eye-witness accounts,” the press release stated.
Following this development, a number of students who were identified were handed over to the police to assist in its investigations.
“Without any prejudice to the provisions statutes of the University, the list of persons duly identified in the report of the Fact-Finding Committee has been handed over to the Ghana Police Service for its own investigations,” it stated.
The university said that “based on the recommendations of the Fact-Finding Committee, the Vice-Chancellor, in his capacity as the chief disciplinary officer of the University, has referred the case against the persons mentioned in the report to the Disciplinary Committee for students.”
Those persons were invited to meet with the Disciplinary Committee as per a Writ of Summons issued on Wednesday, 13th April, 2011.
The school authorities assured the university and the general public that it would not relent in the discovery and sanctioning of the culprits.
“Management would like to assure the University community and the general public that it is doing all that is possible to bring to book and sanction all those involved in the despicable act seen in the video.”
Amina Haruna, a resident of Maamobi in Accra, was on Thursday, March 31, 2011, stripped naked when she was arrested by students of the Mensah Sarbah Hall on the Legon campus for allegedly stealing a number of mobile phones and a laptop computer.
Though some of the students were seen trying to free her from the claws of her captors, others were seen eagerly stretching her thighs wide open for their colleagues to insert their fingers and even mobile phones into her vagina, revealing her clitoral region.
Amina’s brassiere and her underpants where shredded and even snatched away, leaving her stark naked for the boys to do their own thing despite her pleas for leniency.
The Legon Police told media persons that Amina had twice been arrested for a similar offence and was arraigned.
She jumped bail after an Accra Circuit Court granted her bail.
The police had since sought a bench warrant to arrest her, but were unsuccessful until the unfortunate incident.
However the Legon Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Frank Anning, told DAILY GUIDE in an earlier interview that the Police would arraign Amina and her assailants as well, since the law had no place for offenders and those who took the law into their own hands.
Amina said, but for the intervention and care by her grandmother, would have committed suicide.
She feels dejected as her fiancé has also deserted her and revoked plans to marry her.
The urban dictionary defines mob justice as “When a large angry mob takes justice into their own hands. Usually ends with somebody getting hanged, torched or pitchfork’d. A common method of dispensing justice in the more rural areas of a country”
Mob justice is a social and public health quandary in several communities in some African countries. A survey in Tanzania showed that 1249 people suspected of various crimes were killed by mobs in Dar es Salaam during the period of 2000–2004 (Afr Health Sci. 2006 March; 6(1): 36–38). That is almost 250 people killed by mobs per year in one city.
As for the above definition from Urban Dictionary, forget about it. The dictionary definition may be true for Sweden or Norway where mob justice is a rural phenomenon, but not for Ghana or Tanzania.
In Ghana, mob justice is a campus fantasy. It is adored at the citadel of education and enlightenment.
On Thursday March 31, a mob of students offered justice to a suspected female thief caught in one of the dormitories of the University of Ghana. I watched the video and some of the stuff I saw are unprintable. I apologize, but I cannot describe them here, for fear Google may flag my website for hosting adult content.
Mob justice is not a new trend in Ghana. I witnessed a suspected thief stoned to death at Techiman Market in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. I was in Secondary School and had gone to market one Friday to buy some groceries and was unfortunate to encounter the mob in action.
What is new and disconcerting is the fact that such a practice is permeating academic environments and being condoned. I would not be writing about the Legon incident if it happened at Mmaa Nse Hwee, a fictional rural community somewhere not yet on the map. I would be irresponsible however to join the silence when such a despicable behavior is orchestrated in a place where people are being educated to become lawyers, doctors, presidents, and pastors.
An online petition that was launched on this website was signed by hundreds of readers home and abroad. A letter was sent to the University in which we asked the authorities to
Speed up investigation into the sexual violence carried out by some residents of Sarbah Hall against a suspected campus thief, Amina
Report on the findings to the public as soon as possible
Announce appropriate punishments for the responsible students.
Institute measures that will prevent such incidence from happening on such a respected academic environment. We believe that unless the definitional and substantive aspects of the rape law and associated set of laws which deal with sexual harassment, molestation, unnatural offences, are clearly spelt out with appropriate potential punitive measures, any response given to this incident will remain historically a hollow gesture.
It’s been over week. No response. And it’s been over two weeks since the students carried out their action. No actionable response yet from either the University authorities or the local law enforcement
Again, if this is accepted at Legon, imagine what goes on at Mmaa Nse Hwee.
In 2009, I visited the Democratic Republic of Congo for the first time and I remember feeling utterly overwhelmed. It was a trip that really opened my eyes or, should I say, slapped me in the face with the realities of the country. I had heard so much about the violence, particularly against women, but nothing had prepared me. I listened to stories from women and girls about extreme horrors inflicted on them. I learned how families and villages have been torn apart through a plague of terror using sexual violence as a tool of destruction. It was a kind of devastation that I had never seen before.
I left the country questioning what we could do, when the organization V-Day offered a ray of hope with the City of Joy. The City of Joy is a place where survivors of sexual violence can go to heal physically and emotionally, and gain skills and leadership training through programming. The knowledge they gain here will allow them to return to their homes with tools to help rebuild their lives. The concept seemed innovative and I was particularly drawn to the fact that it was thought up completely by the women of the DRC themselves. Who better to decide how to address their real needs?
In February, I had the opportunity to go back to the DRC for the City of Joy opening. A group of us, a V-Day delegation, came together from various parts of the world to travel to Bukavu. In all honesty, part of me was scared. Scared to return and open myself up to the all the emotions and heartache of this country, but it was also fear that drove me back. How can we not return when the situation there is so dire? How dare I let my fear even for a moment make me think twice, when these people live with this fear everyday? So I went and, along with the rest of the delegation, arrived with all the love and hope I could possibly bring. We showed up not only to celebrate something joyful in the midst of all this chaos — the opening of the City of Joy — but also to remind the women of Bukavu that they are not forgotten.
The opening celebration was absolutely incredible. There were hundreds of women and community members dancing, speaking out, and there was so much gratitude and hope. And yet amid the happiness there was still the reality of the situation around us. One Congolese woman got up and spoke and I found her particularly brave and inspiring. She said, “If this was happening in your country it would have ended a long time ago.” She is right. Never would we turn our backs on people in the developed world in the way that the world turns its back on the DRC. V-Day founder Eve Ensler said something amazing that I can’t quote directly, but it was to the effect of “Congo is the heart of Africa and Africa is the heart of the world. And what affects the heart affects all of us”. This country is bleeding to death and it’s up to us to step in and help put an end to this. There is no excuse good enough to allow such crimes against humanity to continue.
In some ways the work we do in the DRC seems like a tiny drop in a big bucket of violence. At the same time I saw and felt the incredible potential that day. These women are capable of so much. A small example is in the construction of the City of Joy. V-Day chose to use a mostly female construction team, likely a first in the history of the DRC. Many doubted their capabilities, but the women welcomed and rose to the challenge. The construction is outstanding and these women, now beginning to understand their own potential, have decided to create their own construction business. V-Day was inspired by this and gave the women a grant to get their business off the ground.
The City of Joy has the capacity to change and inspire groups of women. These women can change their communities. And these communities can change the province and the country. I believe it is in this way that the message of turning pain to power can spread like an epidemic. Just as violence and terror spread throughout the country, why can there not be an epidemic of empowerment and peace?
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon once said, “Investing in women is not only the right thing to do. It is the smart thing to do.
“I am deeply convinced that, in women, the world has at its disposal the most significant and yet largely untapped potential for development and peace. Gender equality is not only a goal in itself, but a prerequisite for reaching all the other international development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.”
Let us hope the City of Joy will be the place where attitudes may be changed about the value of women and where the movement of equality in the DRC starts, so that we may someday see an end to the violence and a better quality of life for all.
Charlize Theron is a United Nations Messenger of Peace with a special focus on promoting the end of violence against women. She was appointed by current UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in November 2008.
V-Day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of Playwright/Founder Eve Ensler’s award winning play The Vagina Monologues. Through its international campaigns, the movement has informed millions about the issue, and has reopened shelters and funded thousands of community-based anti-violence programs and safe-houses around the world.
