The Seleka “considered us like their wives”: [At the base] we prepared the food. If we didn’t prepare it very well, they hit us with the butts of their guns. They [also hit us with] whips they used for horses…. During the day, they did it [rape] one time. At night, it was another [fighter] who would call us. We would think it was to prepare the tea, but it was to rape us.
My family knows [about the rapes] and they said it’s not their problem…. They said I went and got myself into a mess and gave birth to a baby without a father, and I should go back to Bambari to find the father…. I have spent two months in Bangui. No one in my family has helped me…. I thought that the baby should die, or I should die with the baby
As told to researchers for Human Rights Watch
