Name: The hidden trauma of Malian refugee women and girls
Uploaded: 2025-12-19T00:56:39.374Z
Duration: 1 min 53 s
Description: As thousands of Malians are fleeing terror and fighting in their home country, women and girls often have to deal with the added trauma of sexual violence.

As thousands of Malians are fleeing terror and fighting in their home country, women and girls often have to deal with the added trauma of sexual violence.

Bamako

Thousands of people are fleeing violence in Mali, seeking refuge in Mauritania's desert camps. Among the refugees are women and girls suffering from severe trauma, including a reported case of a 14-year-old girl who was allegedly assaulted by members of the Afrika Korps, a Russian military unit now operating in Mali.

Medical teams, such as Doctors Without Borders, are treating critical cases but suspect that many more victims are not coming forward until their conditions worsen. As the conflict persists, many survivors' experiences remain unreported, and perpetrators often evade justice.

The hidden trauma of Malian refugee women and girls

In a desert camp, some of the thousands of people crossing into Mauritania to escape violence in Mali. Outside a clinic wait the anxious mother and aunt of a 14-year-old girl who lies in acute shock from the trauma of what her family says was a brutal sexual assault. They spent 30 minutes with her and the young man in the house isolated from us. They hit her. She was scared of them. She started crying and she cried and cried until they released her to us. Then they took the young man and left. The family identifies the attackers as members of Afrika Korps, a Russian military unit that recently replaced the Wagner Group to help Mali's military government combat jihadist militants. When they came, they took the girl in the house. We were all scared because we thought after the girl they would exterminate us all. I had heart palpitations. My heart was racing. The girl's condition is so critical the Doctors Without Borders team has to rush her to the closest town where there's a hospital. They suspect there may be many more of such victims. I'm convinced that the people fleeing Mali to seek refuge here could also be in the same condition but they just don't ask for care immediately. They only come when things have already become complicated. So as more people flee the violence in Mali, many scars will remain private and their attackers beyond the reach of justice. For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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