Mogadishu - When Nura Ahmed (not her real name) abandoned her home in Wargedow, Lower Shabelle region, to escape the drought, she did not envisage she would become a victim of rape. However, everything changed one evening after the 33 year-old woman and her neighbours decided to flee  Wargedow in search of food and water.

Nura left for a village called Jambalul in the company of a group of women. Hardly halfway into their journey, they were accosted by three armed men who scattered the women in different directions. Nura was not lucky: the men  caught her, dragged her to a nearby thicket and raped her.

Though she does not remember the exact day on which the incident happened, she recalls it happened last month under a full moon.

“We had fled because of food and water. On our way to seek food and water, it is when we encountered rape,” Nura explains.

Weak and injured, the mother of four walked back to the main road to seek help. Luckily a tractor driver offered her a lift to Jambalul, where Nura’s sister lives. Her sister took her to a facility operated by Haweenka Horseedka Nabadda Iyo Nolosha (HINNA), a local non-governmental organization based in Mogadishu that supports survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. 

Owing to decades of war and fragile security and legal systems, Somalia is still experiencing increased cases of sexual violence targeting women. Widespread internal displacement in Somalia has also eroded social protection networks. Many women have been displaced from their homes for decades and find themselves marginalized and at risk of gender-based violence. Women within internally displaced communities are particularly vulnerable and often have limited access to justice, services and assistance, including medical care and psycho-social support.

According to the Gender-Based Violence Information Management System Consolidated Data Report for January – December 2016, 7,324 new gender-based violence incidents were reported in Somalia. Ninety-nine percent of the survivors were female, while 74 percent were internally displaced persons (IDPs) like Nura.

“Sexual and gender-based violence is widespread since the legal and justice system is weak. Also, the rapists are often unknown, and this presents challenges in seeking legal redress. When drought hit the country and people fled from hunger, armed gangs with no uniforms were intercepting people who were fleeing,” notes Fadwa Hassan Jimale, the protection officer at HINNA.

In the recent past, HINNA has been conducting training and public awareness campaigns about its programmes in communities to educate residents about the dangers of sexual and gender-based violence.

Ms. Jimale hopes the campaigns will encourage more victims to speak out and seek medical and legal aid.

According to Noel Kututwa, a Women Protection Officer with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), the organization works closely with civil society to ensure that victims of sexual violence get the necessary support.

“We work with civil society organizations to report cases, to build their capacity to identify cases and to support survivors in various forms. It can be psycho-social support, medical support, legal support and or provision of economic assistance in situations where the survivors of sexual violence have been ostracized from their families and cannot go back to their communities,” he stated.

In the meantime, Nura says she does not intend to go back to Wargedow but will stay in Mogadishu until the country’s humanitarian crisis eases.