Protect Cyclone Victims From Sex for Food Trap
By Khalifa Hemed
Published April 25, 2019
Desperation for food is forcing victims of a cyclone to trade sex for food.
Hunger and destruction caused by Cyclone Idai, Human Rights Watch reports, has left hundreds of thousands of women in Mozambique vulnerable to abuse by
community leaders.
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Calling upon the government of Mozambique to ‘urgently adopt measures to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse of cyclone victims and create an environment
in which women can come forward and report abuses’, further requests ‘International partners, particularly the UN’, to ‘ensure greater oversight of the
conduct of local officials during the distribution of humanitarian aid’.
The Government, HRW says, should investigate and prosecute local community leaders who are demanding sexual favours from people affected by the cyclone in
exchange for for food.
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“The sexual exploitation of women struggling to feed their families after Cyclone Idai is revolting and cruel and should be stopped immediately,” says Dewa
Mavhinga, Southern Africa director at HRW. “The authorities should promptly investigate reports of women being coerced into exchanging sex for food and
appropriately punish anyone using their position of power to exploit and abuse women.”
More than 1.85 million people, most of them women and children, are reported to be in urgent need of assistance after the cyclone hit, bringing heavy rains
that left entire villages in Manica, Sofala, and Zambezia provinces submerged as floodwaters rose.
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While some local leaders are reported to be charging people to have their names included on food distribution lists, families headed by women are excluded
these lists as only the names of male heads of households are considered. This puts women, many of who ave not seen any food for weeks, in a precaurious
position and forces them to do anything, including sleeping with the men in charge of the food distribution.
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