Rape at Pabbo IDP Camp

I have visited the below camp a number of times. While I am not pleased to hear the horrible situation, which I also anticipated, it is a relief to see that somebody is finally investigating sexual and gender-based violence in the camps. It has been done on some level, but a much more comprehensive effort is needed!! There needs to be a coordinated response and of course I recognize that this is hard to initiate when it is really difficult to get data on prevalence rates. More to come on this issue from me, but please read the brief below:

UGANDA: Rape rampant in largest northern IDP campAt least 60 percent of women in the largest camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in war-torn northern Uganda have encountered some form of sexual and domestic violence, a new survey has revealed.The report, titled "Suffering In Silence", was based on the findings of a joint government and UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) nine-month study in Pabbo Camp in Gulu District, about 380 km north of Uganda's capital, Kampala.In their 33-page study of sexual and gender based violence, UNICEF and the government said research showed that six out of 10 women in the camp - home to some 64,000 IDPs - were physically and sexually assaulted, threatened and humiliated by men."UNICEF is very concerned that victims were mainly girls, some as young as four years old," Martin Mogwanja, UNICEF's representative in Uganda, said at the launch of the report on Wednesday in Gulu. [Full story on: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47689 ]