Sex-slave girls forced to marry Islamic State terrorists and they are raped daily
ISIS-linked militants in Mozambique have forced sex-slave girls into marriage after abducting more than 600 women and children over the past three years, a new report reveals.
Women and young girls were abducted during raids on towns and villages by the militants known locally as Al-Shabab, who have pledged allegiance to ISIS, which has claimed responsibility for a number of their attacks.
The group force young women and girls to ‘marry’ their fighters ‘who enslave and sexually abuse them’ while some have been sold off to foreign militants for between $600 and $1,800, it said.
‘An armed group linked to the Islamic State (ISIS) has since 2018 kidnapped and enslaved more than 600 women and girls in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province,’ Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
Some have been freed by Mozambican and foreign forces deployed this year to help quell the violence that has wreaked havoc in the region since October 2017.
But some are still missing, the rights watchdog said.
One 33-year-old woman said the Islamists assaulted her aunt, a local official, and then forced her at gunpoint to identify all the houses containing girls between ages 12 and 17 in her town.
The woman counted 203 girls but did not know how many were abducted.
A 27-year-old man said: ‘Some mothers were begging the fighters to take them instead of their daughters. But one of the mashababos said they didn’t want old women with children and diseases.’
Meanwhile a 34-year-old former abductee said he was forced to select the women and girls for sex with the fighters on their return from military operations.
He said: ‘Those who refused were punished with beatings, and no food for days.’
‘An unknown number of women and girls remain in captivity in Mozambique, facing horrific abuses daily, including enslavement and rape by Al-Shabab fighters,’ said Mausi Segun, HRW’s Africa director.
She added: ‘Al Shabab’s leaders should immediately release every woman and girl in their captivity.
‘They should take all necessary steps to prevent rape and sexual abuse by their fighters, end child marriage, forced marriage, and the sale and enslavement of women and girls at their bases and areas of operation.’
HRW based its report on investigations including interviews with former abductees or their relatives, security sources and government officials.
The unrest that has plagued the gas-rich northern region of Mozambique has claimed at least 3,578 lives, including 1,575 civilians, according to US-based conflict tracking organisation, ACLED.
More than 800,000 others have been displaced, according to government and UN agencies.
Since July, more than 3,100 African, European and US soldiers have been deployed to the Cabo Delgado province to quell the unrest.
It was revealed earlier this year that girls as young as 11 were being beheaded by the militants.
One mother told Save the Children that her eldest son, 12, had his head cut off close to where she was hiding with her three other children when their village was raided.
Another mother described her heartache at leaving her murdered 11-year-old son in their village without a burial because her family were forced to flee.
Nearly 580,000 people left their homes last year as violence intensified across the gas-rich Cabo Delgado province where a group calling itself Islamic State Central Africa Province have been waging a brutal insurgency since 2017.
In March, ISIS-linked militants carried out a brutal massacre in the provinc that left dozens dead including one Briton.
According to eyewitness reports, the gunmen ruthlessly attacked nearby villages before their main assault on Palma, and even ambushed a convoy of foreigners trying to escape the violence.
Source: Daily Mail
