Somalia

Cases of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), as well as domestic violence, are increasing in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Hargeisa, capital of the self-declared independent Republic of Somaliland, with social workers attributing the trend to hard economic times made worse by recent drought in the region.

High decorated ceremony organized by the organization of the Somali women known as COGWO that focused on the role of the women for the peace and development of the Somali society took place in the capital Mogadishu on Monday.

The number of reported rapes in camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, has risen sharply, creating “a climate of fear”, according to a civil society source.

Deteriorating security, a culture of impunity and an increase in attacks on internally displaced people (IDPs) in the central Somali town of Galkayo, Mudug region, have resulted in a sharp increase in rape cases, gender activists told IRIN.

After dropping out of school in the sixth grade to help her mother, Fartun Abdi Hashi, 22, was given a second chance at earning an income with a sanitary pads project.

Hashi's family arrived at the Doro camp for the internally displaced in Galkayo, central Somalia, when she was 12. She enrolled at the Galkayo Education Centre for Peace and Development (GECPD) after dropping out of school in 2006 to help provide for her siblings.

Nadifa, a widowed mother of four, left her hut near Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, to search for food. When she returned home hours later, she found a man raping her 11-year-old daughter. Nadifa tried to defend her daughter but was torn away by armed men as she screamed. The neighborhood watched helplessly as the men abducted Nadifa. She was pistol-whipped, kicked, punched, and scorched with burning plastic.

Like so many in the Horn of Africa, Nadifa needed food. The twice-widowed mother of four left her children at their makeshift hut in an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp outside Mogadishu to seek dry food aid in a neighbouring camp.

The day seems to be getting brighter in Somalia districts that bore the brunt of fanaticism under the al-Shaabab militants as former residents return to savour the new feeling of freedom.

Somali women who have escaped drought and war in their home country to Kenya's Dadaab refugee camp tell CBC News they faced desperate journeys where sexual violence is commonplace, but risk being marginalized by other refugees if their stories of abuse are heard.

On July 22, 2011 the newly appointed Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, a Harvard-trained professor of economics, announced his 49-member cabinet. There are only two women in it: one minister and one vice minister. Yet, Somali women and children are the primary victims of ongoing conflict and deepening drought and famine in Somalia.