Jihadists in northern Mozambique use rape as a weapon of war – DW – 13.07.2024

“There are many girls in this area who have been kidnapped and forced to marry terrorists,” says 17-year-old Telma from the Chiure district in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado. A brutal war has been raging in her home region since October 2017 between a terrorist group close to the “Islamic State” and the Mozambican security forces and their allies.

“There is a girl in our neighborhood who managed to escape the terrorists and return to her family after three years of captivity,” Telma said. “But most never come back. The jihadists also kidnap very young girls. They grow up with the terrorists until they reach puberty. Then they are forced to have sex and have children.”

Telma’s report was one of hundreds of testimonies collected and analyzed by aid workers in northern Mozambique and compiled in a recent report on “Forced Child Marriage in Cabo Delgado.”published by Save The Children Mozambique.

“The problem of forced marriage of underage girls existed before the war, but it was taboo for a long time. The background is cultural and social. Since the start of the terror, the problem has worsened dramatically. We must do something about it,” Paula Sengo Timane, one of the authors of the report, told DW.

More child marriages

The escalation of the conflict in Cabo Delgado in 2023 has led to a 10% increase in child marriages, according to NGOs involved in the study. Timane said she fears that number could continue to rise. The war raging across much of Cabo Delgado province is preventing children in contested areas from receiving the protection and support they need.

Timane called for a rapid resolution of the conflict in Cabo Delgado and additional resources for the care and support of children. Asked if it was possible for NGOs such as Save the Children to continue providing aid in areas affected by terrorism, such as the districts of Macomia, Palma or Mocímboa da Praia, she said: “It is not impossible, but very difficult and challenging.”

As long as the security situation is precarious, aid organizations generally have no access to the conflict areas and the children at risk there. It is currently almost impossible to travel to the affected people and work there.

“Kidnappings and rapes are systematic”

“During our field research, we found that the jihadists systematically use kidnapping, rape and forced marriages as a means of warfare,” said Timane. The extremists’ aim is to spread “fear and terror” among the population: “They want to demonstrate their power over families and also gain psychological ground. This is an important part of warfare for such groups, also in other parts of the world.”

However, the problem also has a component that is rooted in the social and socio-cultural situation in the war zone: “The economic and social situation is catastrophic. In this context, we have documented isolated cases in which parents have, as a precaution, married off their underage daughters to members of the terrorists,” says the author of the study “Forced marriages of children in Cabo Delgado.”

“We were told that parents even offered their daughters to terrorists on their own initiative. These parents were usually after the dowry, the bride price, which they desperately needed to feed their remaining family, especially since the war in recent years has drastically reduced the incomes of most people in the war zone,” said Paula Sengo Timane, citing witnesses on the ground.

In some cases, the security aspect was also important for the parents concerned: “Some parents wanted to hand over their daughters to a man who could protect the girls from rape and kidnapping by other terrorists.”

Devastating effects of war

The wave of attacks in Cabo Delgado since January has led to the closure of almost all schools in the contested areas, making it impossible for more than 22,700 children to continue their education. According to Paula Sengo Timane, young married girls have significantly lower chances of completing school. They are also at greater risk of physical and sexual violence, as well as an increased risk of complications during pregnancy and childbirth.

The study published by Save the Children states that more and more children in Cabo Delgado are expressing concern that they themselves may become victims of this type of violence.

“We have documented that the children, especially the girls in the most conflict-ridden areas, are sometimes severely traumatized and need psychological care,” says Timane.

The war against jihadist terror in Cabo Delgado is entering its eighth year, with no end in sight. According to UN figures in June, more than 189,000 people have been forced to flee their homes since the end of last year, the largest displacement since the war began. According to NGOs, more than 4,000 people have been killed and 700,000 displaced since 2017.