Somalia

The supposed sanctuary of Kenyan refugee camps can't protect Somali women from the horrors of a growing rape epidemic.

Women fleeing conflict and famine in Somalia are facing another threat to their lives, sexual assault. As they make the long journey from what was once their home to the world's largest refugee complex at Dadaab, Kenya, women have to contend with being attacked and raped by armed militants and bandits, often times repeatedly.

DADAAB, Kenya (AP) — Refugee Barwago Mohamud huddles silently beneath a few blankets stretched over sticks at night, fearing for her life after a neighbor was raped, and a naked woman who had been kidnapped and gang-raped for three days in front of her terrified children was delivered to the medical tent next door.

Humanitarian organizations in the Horn of Africa say they've seen a dramatic increase in violence against women as more people make the journey to refugee camps in East Africa.

An influx of people at Hagadera, Ifo and Dagahaley camps, collectively known as Dadaab refugee camps, is also causing increased violence in the camps, according to aid agencies in the region.

The wind hollers, whipping up dust that scratches at our faces. As I fumble with my notebook, a thorny branch of the drought-resistant Mathenge tree hits me in the face and Yaroy Sirat Muhammed, with an infant in her arm, immediately reaches out to hold the wayward stem so that it doesn't happen again.

I thank her sheepishly and urge her not to bother, but she does not let it go.

In the maternity ward at a hospital on the Hagadera refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya, women refugees lay on beds nursing newborns or waiting to give birth.

Katlum Mohammed, 22-years-old, has just arrived at the camp from central Somalia. She lays on her side, nine months pregnant with her first child.

Somalia has been plagued by decades of woes - persistent conflict, waves of natural disasters and drought. While these crises make headlines, the country's embattled people - a quarter of whom have been uprooted - also face personal tragedies that are no less devastating.

Fatima Osman Bulle lives in an internally displaced ppeople's camp in Mogadishu. Her makeshift house consists of cloths and sticks and has no running water, electricity or toilet. She and her husband, seven children and three relatives are crammed into one room.

"I feel that I am a low-class member of the family," Bulle says. "I am the most disrespected person in the home."

A Thomson Reuters Foundation poll may have found that Afghanistan is the most dangerous place to be a woman, but Somalia's women's minister is astonished any country could be worse than her own.

"I'm completely surprised because I thought Somalia would be first on the list, not fifth," said Maryan Qasim.