Metro

Jail fear prevents women in Mauritania from filing rape complaints

Published

5 years ago

September 12, 2018

Human rights activists are calling for a change to Mauritanian law so that women and girls who have been raped will not be prosecuted for sexual relations outside marriage.

Rape survivors are reluctant to file complaints in the west African country in case they are then charged, according to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Adultery is known as “zina” and, in theory, is punishable by flogging, jail terms, or death by stoning if the offender is married or divorced. Mauritania does not as a rule carry out corporal punishments, so flogging and death by stoning can transmute into being imprisoned indefinitely.

One case cited by HRW involved a 15-year-old girl who was imprisoned after being repeatedly gang-raped by four men who held her captive for two weeks, because one of the men – whom she knew – said he would marry her.

In another case, a prosecutor was reported as asking a rape survivor: “If you didn’t consent, why didn’t you tell your parents?” When the survivor said she knew the man who raped her, the prosecutor said: “All the things you are saying are lies, you did this willingly.”

Government statistics are not freely available, so it is impossible to know how many people are in jail for zina, but girls as well as adults are thought to have been imprisoned for the “offence”.

“Women and girls should not run the risk of jail or further stigma for reporting sexual abuse,” said HRW’s Sarah Leah Whitson. “To combat sexual violence, Mauritania should require law enforcement and public health systems to stop treating victims as suspects, support them in seeking justice and recovery, and prosecute the perpetrators.”

HRW called for the government to decriminalise and stop prosecuting and detaining people for zina, as well as to pass a law defining rape and criminalising all other forms of sexual violence.

The Mauritanian government responded at length to the report, saying that most incidents of sexual assault and domestic violence were against minors or adolescents. “Perpetrators are often individuals close to the victims or family members who exploit the innocence and immaturity of the above mentioned people to sexually abuse them,” the government statement said.

Life is not easy for many Mauritanian women and girls. The prevalence of female genital mutilation is 67%, some ethnic groups see domestic violence as a sign that a husband loves his wife, and many girls are sent away to “fat camps” in the desert to be force-fed, so that they put on large amounts of weight and fit Mauritanian notions of beauty.

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Metro

Sudan War: Gen. Al-Burhan says he’s ready for peace talks

Published

6 hours ago

September 23, 2023

Akanimoh Etim

Sudan’s Army Chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan says he is now open for peace talks that could bring the war in the country to an end.

Before the surprise announcement on Friday, Al-Burhan had maintained a non-compromising stance and had refused all entreaties to enter into negotiations with his former number two man and main rival, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the leader of the Rapid Support Force (RSF).

However, Al-Burhan, in a statement in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), said he had not sought military support on a recent regional tour and that his preference was for a peaceful solution to the conflict that has killed thousands and displaced millions of civilians.

“Every war ends in peace, whether through negotiations or force. We are proceeding on those two paths, and our preferred path is the path of negotiations,” Al-Burhan said.

Al-Burhan added that he believed that talks by Saudi Arabia and the United States in Jeddah which were stalled could still succeed.

In recent weeks, Al-Burhan has made a series of foreign visits after remaining holed up in Sudan for the first few months of the war, often sending representatives for talks.

In one of his visits to Cairo, Egypt, the Army Chief had said the purpose was to seek solutions and not military support, though he had asked other states to block external help that he claimed the RSF was receiving.

“We asked our neighbors to help us monitor the borders to stop the flow of mercenaries,” he had said.

The Sudan war which broke out between the army and the RSF in April 15 over plans for a political transition and the integration of the RSF into the army, has seen thousands of civilians killed and millions of others forced to flee the country.

Several ceasefire agreements entered into by the warring factions have been breached with both sides trading blames on their culpability, while previous claims by both sides that they want peace have failed to stop bloodshed.

Metro

Nigeria’s Presidency apologises for UNGA goof

Published

11 hours ago

September 23, 2023

Akanimoh Etim

The Nigerian Presidency has apologised over a blunder it made when announcing that President Bola Tinubu was the first African leader to ring the bell at the close of trade at the National Association of Securities Dealers Automatic Quotation System (NASDAQ) in the United States.

Tinubu had, on Wednesday, rang the closing bell at the NASDAQ headquarters in New York City on the sidelines of the 78th edition of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), and used the opportunity to advance his foreign investment push in front of financial markets at the famous stock exchange.

“It’s a great honour for me to be here. I am happy to bring Nigeria to your doorsteps and I am honoured that we are here, today, with a bubbling Nigerian stock market that will evolve in the West African sub-region,” he said.

‘’The greatest economy in Africa is Nigeria. There is an immense opportunity in Nigeria, where you can invest your money without fear,” the president added.

Shortly after the ringing of the bell, the Presidency released a statement claiming that Tinubu had entered the history books as the first leader of an African country to get the honour of ringing the NASDAQ bell.

“In honour of President Bola Tinubu’s determined global push to aggressively attract foreign direct investment into Nigeria.

“The world’s second largest stock exchange, the National Association of Securities Dealers Automatic Quotation System (NASDAQ), on Wednesday in the world’s financial capital, invited President Tinubu to ring the closing bell. Making him the first African President to ever receive the honour,” the statement, issued by presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale said.

However, following a backlash, and fact-finding by Nigerians and media outlets that revealed that Tinubu was not the first African leader to ring the bell, the presidency, in a statement on Friday, retracted its claim and tendered an apology.

In the apology issued by Ngelale, the presidency said it later found out that a former African leader had previously rung the bell at NASDAQ, thereby debunking the initial claim of Tinubu’s historic achievement.

“We inadvertently referred to President Bola Tinubu as the first African leader to ring the bell at NASDAQ on Wednesday in New York, based on the information provided by a third-party event organiser.

“We have since found out that this information was/is incorrect as a former African leader has indeed had the privilege. This error is sincerely regretted,” the statement said.