After Sierre Leone Civil War

After Sierre Leone gained independence from Britain in 1961 and created their government, known as the All People’s Congress, a decade-long Civil War had followed immediately after. Due to the frustrations of a corrupt government the rebel group, Revolutionary United Front, was formed to overthrow the government resulting in a decade-long war that was not concluded until 1999. During the civil war, rape was used as a tool of war and many soldiers and authorities of higher power would rape women and even child. Mainly groups such as the RUF would violate human rights and perform personal abuse and sexual violence. Different forms of sexual assault includes rape, gang-rape, and the abduction of girls and women for forced labor and sexual slavery.

In addition to this many women are also ashamed to report that they were was sexually assaulted because they fear they will be shamed by their family just the same as the community. As stated by Gurvinder Kalra and Dinesh Bhugra,“In sociocentrism societies where shame is a more prevalent emotion, the victims of sexual violence may not open up about their trauma and hence may not report it.” A single act of sexual abuse can affect women’s perspective toward the world and affect her performance in her private and work life. This problem of rape could also lead to more greater problems such as trafficking and prostitution. In fact, Prostitution of women, girls, and boys is perceived to have increased in post-war Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone is a transit and destination country for trafficking of women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation. According, to the US Department of State, Victims originate mostly from rural provinces and are recruited to urban and mining centers for operation in prostitution, domestic slavery, and forced labor in artisanal diamond and granite mining, petty trading, portering, rock breaking, street crime, and begging. Trafficking victims may also be found in

After the incident women will go through 3 stages which are shock, denial, and integration. Fear may be the most common feeling women will experience, are concerned about their environment, about their health, about their personal relationships. It is common for victims of attacks to be cautious on the street, in the car, in their home and nearly any time they are alone. The abuse of these women was very cruel as some had vaginal discharge, would bleed for multiple days or to death, or would not be able to have healthy childbearing or sexual experiences due to both the physical and psychological trauma of rape. Trying to stop these crimes can be difficult, but society makes it even harder for the government to protect its people. Family honor is everything to the culture of Sierra. However, this culture quota has kept women hurt and objective. Many cases of rape go unreported, as a result of the family's responsibility to uphold the family name. Respect of the families name tends to be valued more than the respect of the women in the family. This sick paradox is one of the primary reasons why this crime continues to be committed. These rapist can live in the community of the woman, yet remain free and looked upon as a working man in society, all because of the image. As far as government protection helping these girls from crime, the Sierra Leonean army, police, and a