Mozambique : Cyclone Victims Forced to Trade Sex for Food

/mozambique-cyclone-victims-forced-trade

  • @odilon
    odilon CC BY-NC-ND

    U.N. to probe sex-for-food aid allegations after ...
    ▻http://news.trust.org/item/20190426133548-oe3xz

    The United Nations said on Friday it will investigate allegations that survivors of a deadly cyclone in Mozambique are being forced to have sex with community leaders for food.

    More than 1,000 people died and tens of thousands were forced from their homes when Cyclone Idai hammered Mozambique before moving inland to Malawi and Zimbabwe, in one of the worst climate-related disasters to hit the southern hemisphere.

    The U.N. pledge came a day after Human Rights Watch (HRW) published accounts of female survivors who said they were abused by local leaders and as a second powerful storm, Cyclone Kenneth, pounded the impoverished southeast African nation.

    “As with any report on sexual exploitation and abuse, we are acting swiftly to follow-up on these allegations, including with the relevant authorities,” the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said in a statement.

    “The U.N. has a zero tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse. It is not, and never will be, acceptable for any person in a position of power to abuse the most vulnerable, let alone in their time of greatest need.”

    #abus_de_pouvoir #viols #abus_sexuels #Mozambique #catastrophe

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    • @odilon
      odilon CC BY-NC-ND

      et ce n’est pas tout #femmes #discrimination

      A local community leader in the town of Tica, Nhamatanda district, told Human Rights Watch that in some cases, where access by road is impossible, local community leaders are responsible for storing the food and distributing it to families on a weekly basis. She said that, “Because the food is not enough for everyone,” some local leaders have exploited the situation by charging people to include their names on the distribution lists.

      One aid worker said that the distribution list often contains only the names of male heads of households, and excludes families headed by women. “In some of the villages, women and their children have not seen any food for weeks,” she said. “They would do anything for food, including sleeping with men in charge of the food distribution.”

      Another aid worker said that her international organization had received reports of sexual abuse of women not only in their villages, but also in camps for internally displaced people. She said they were monitoring the situation and training people to raise awareness among women and to report any cases of sexual exploitation or abuse.

      ▻https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/25/mozambique-cyclone-victims-forced-trade-sex-food

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