Sudanese rape camp survivors reveal the horrific reality many women face full of brutal rape and abuse (WARNING: Graphic Content)

Women are held indefinitely inside secret rape camps

Thousands of Sudanese women and girls as young as 12-years-old have been abducted and repeatedly raped by several men, sometimes all at once. The women are usually held captive indefinitely in secret rape camps maintained by government soldiers or abused until they are physically unable to have sex. 

The horrible plight of women and children in war-torn countries continues as disputes over power intensifies with crimes against human rights.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Secret rape camps where South Sudanese women as young as 12-years-old are sexually assaulted and even killed have been hidden for quite some time. Through interviews by the AFP in the northern Unity State, the systematic and revolting activities of the government soldiers and their allied militia during a recent offensive was revealed. 

According to The Daily Mail, ethnic murders and rapes are not limited to the rebels, they extend to government forces as well. The forces believe they were to "cleanse" opponent territories.

Nyabena, a 30-year-old mother, was taken by the government soldiers to Kotong, the stronghold of Major-General Matthew Puljang, commander of a tribal Bul Nuer militia. The faction was allied with the SPLA of South Sudan and was fighting against rebels since December 2013. Their offensive was tagged it as a "scorched earth policy" in a UN August report.

The militia's soldiers violated the rights of many women, including Nyabena, mother of 5. She was forced to work during the day, carrying looted goods and food through guarded security. At night, Nyabena was tied with her elbows behind her back alongside other women whom soldiers would pick out whenever they wanted their sexual lust satisfied. 

"When one of the soldiers wanted to have sex he would come, untie us and take us away. When they were finished they would bring you back and tie you to the post again," Nyabena told AFP. Being raped by a number of men a night was common, and those who fought against the assaults would be discovered missing by the other women the next morning. 

38-year-old mother of 5, Nyamai, was beaten with a stick when she pleaded not to be raped by 10 men at once. She begged, "Please, let one guy deal with me, don't come all of you."

Elsewhere, a woman called Nyatuach had her three unmarried daughters abducted from their village in Rubkona County. Her 17-year-old daughter escaped with three of Nyamai's nieces but two of her teenage daughters remain missing. The girls who returned were "very sick, very thin."

Nyatuach said the girls "were weak and they were leaking fluids from so many men having intercourse with them. She believes their symptoms match a condition called fistula, which Nyatuach explained is a tear in the wall between the vagina and bladder or rectum that can be caused by extremely violent rape. She added that soldiers would dispose of the women, either by releasing them or killing them, once they were broken.

In another instance in Koch County, Rebecca's 12-year-old daughter was taken but was found again the following day. The girl said, "When they took me, those people used me."

Rebecca boiled water and washed her little girl as she responded, "We can do nothing. It's like that." 

These stories are just a few of thousands of horrific events many of the South Sudanese women are subjected to. Unfortunately, when communities are raided, every man and boy is killed, leaving the women defenseless. 

The camps are secret, with news of their existence only now being reported after women escape and tell their stories.

"Nobody knows what's happening in Mayom County," one human rights investigator said. "In all the southern Unity counties it's been the same: those women who escape are lucky. Those who don't are raped and abducted or killed. The abduction of women seems to be systematic. It might be for a day, or longer, or forever."

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