A Voice for the Voiceless

By: Danielle L. Gwozdz
Impunity Watch News Reporter, Africa

MOGADISHU, Somalia – A 19-year-old woman who alleged she was raped has been given a suspended jail sentence by a Somalia court.

The woman, who spent three weeks in pre-trial detention, was convicted of defamation and lying and told she could not leave Mogadishu. Two journalists who reported her story were also convicted of the same offense.

The two men accused of raping the woman have not been brought before a court.

During the time of the suspended jail sentence, the woman will be confined to her home, said Judge Hashi Elmi Nur.

The journalists are to serve out their sentences, of one year and six months respectively, or pay a fine in order to win early release.

This is the second time this year that Somalia has jailed a woman for speaking out about rape and journalists for interviewing her.

Spokesman Ridwaan Haji said war-torn Somalia’s courts were in their “infancy” and needed time to improve.

He also said that while the government stopped “a free pass and freedom of speech,” journalists were also obliged to “take their role in society seriously and demonstrate social responsibility.”

The Somalia government has said previously that sexual violence is unacceptable.

The BBC’s Mohamed Moalimu in Mogadishu says the case raised fears among journalists about reporting rape.

The woman in this case has accused two men from the state-run Radio Mogadishu of raping her at gunpoint.

Last month Human Rights Watch called on the government to order a new and impartial investigation into the case, saying the response to the incident “has been marred by mismanagement, opacity, and the harassment of the female rape survivor and support service providers.”

This “points to security officials trying to silence both those who report the pervasive problems of sexual violence and those who help rape survivors,” HRW said.

Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.

Eighteen media professionals were killed in Somalia in 2012, the east African country’s deadliest year on record, according to reports.

At least six media reporters have been killed this year.

In August, a Somali woman who said she was gang raped by African Union (AU) soldiers was held by police for questioning.

For more information, please visit:

BBC News – Somalia court sentences ‘rape victim’ – 9 December 2013
Horseed Media – Somali court sentences alleged rape victim, journalists – 9 December 2013
News.com.au – Somali court sentences alleged rape victim, journalists – 9 December 2013
The Hindu – Rape victim in Somalia sentenced, govt. defends court – 11 December 2013
The Nation – Somali court sentences alleged rape victim, journalists – 10 December 2013
The Daily Star – Somali court sentences alleged rape victim, journalists – 9 December 2013
News 24 – Somali ‘rape’ victim, journos sentenced – 9 December 2013

By: Danielle L. Gwozdz
Impunity Watch News Reporter, Africa

ASMARA, Eritrea – Up to 30,000 Eritreans have been abducted since 2007 and taken to Egypt’s Sinai to suffer torture and ransom demands, new research says.

The study, presented to the European parliament, says Eritrean and Sudanese security officers are plotting with the kidnap gangs.

The report focuses on the trafficking of refugees from the Horn of Africa who are targeted by criminal networks for extortion and exploitation. The report looks at the experiences of the refugees who have fled their countries looking for safety and security.

The captives are threatened with being sold to people traffickers if they do not raise tens of thousands of dollars. Some are freed if they raise the ransoms. Others are sold on to traffickers, even after money has changed hands, only to be tortured to extract further cash from relatives.

At least $600m has been extorted from families in ransom payments, the report says.

Eritrea has denied its officials are involved in the kidnappings. The report, however, says Eritrea’s Border Surveillance Unit (BSU) and Sudanese security officials are among the “actors” conspiring with the gangs that hold people hostage in the largely lawless Sinai.  

Most of those targeted are Eritrean refugees fleeing the country.

Almost every Eritrean knows somebody who has been held hostage.

“Their captors are opportunistic criminals looking to profit from their vulnerability,” the report says.

“[The victims] are then taken to the Sinai and sold, sometimes more than once, to Bedouin groups living in Sinai.”

These hostages include men, women, children, and infants fleeing from desperate circumstances in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Sudan. An estimated 95% are from Eritrea.

Many of the hostages die in captivity or after their release. Some simply disappear – killed while being held, shot by border guards, or from just being lost in the desert.

The study interviewed an Eritrean woman living in Sweden who told them her son was abducted from the camp. He and six other children were forced into a car by a high-ranking Sawa military officer and driven into Sudan. Once there, they were made to call their parents, who were given three days to pay $7,500 or they would be sold to traffickers.

“[The hostages] are chained together without toilets or washing facilities and dehydrated, starved, and deprived of sleep,” the report says.

“They are subject to threats of death and organ harvesting . . . . Those who attempt to escape are severely tortured.”

The report said trafficking would have been impossible without the direct involvement of Eritrean security officials, given the “restrictions on movement within the country, the requirement of exit visas at the border and the shoot-to-kill policy for illegal border crossing.”

Eritrea’s UK ambassador said Eritrea is a “victim of human trafficking” and that the government was “working hard” to arrest and bring justice to justice criminal gangs operating along its border.

For more information, please visit:

BBC News – Thousands of Eritreans ‘abducted to Sinai for ransom’ – 4 December 2013
Free Republic – Thousands of Eritreans ‘abducted to Sinai for ransom’ – 6 December 2013
WADR – Thousands of Eritreans ‘abducted to Sinai for ransom’ – 5 December 2013
Agencia Angola Press – Thousands of Eritreans ‘abducted to Sinai for ransom’ – 7 December 2013
allAfrica – Eritrea: The Human Trafficking Cycle: Sinai and Beyond – 2 December 2013
The Guardian – Eritrea’s military is trafficking the nation’s children, report says – 3 December 2013