This story comes from Bourem, Gao region, Northern Mali.

By H3J1U

“I was at home alone with my mum that Thursday, and it was around noon when two rebels showed up at our door with guns. They were shouting “where are the men”. My mum replied saying that we were alone, and that my father had passed away. She then asked what they wanted, and one of the rebels pointed at me and said: “that one, that one is what we want”. My mother replied in kind saying “she’s my daughter, leave her alone, she has done nothing wrong”.

One of the rebels said in the Tamasheq language [the language of the Tuareg]  “take the girl”, then they began hitting my mum. I began crying, and my mum was crying too, telling them to leave me alone, that I’m all that she has left, and that I’m already an orphan. They took me in the shed in the courtyard by force and one of them jumped on me, tore my clothes off and began having sex with me; when he was done the other one did the same thing. I cried until I lost my voice. No one was around to come to my rescue and I lost consciousness.

When I woke up, I was hurting badly and I was bleeding – my mum cleaned me up, then I spent one week locked indoors, crying. I don’t know what to do now.”

H3J1U is currently in the company of twenty-nine other survivors of sexual and gender based violence in Sini Sanuman’s reintegration centre in Bourem. She is being followed by a psychologist who is helping her recover from her trauma, and she is following group skills training to regain confidence in herself and her abilities.