Loose Ends by Caroline Taylor5/19/2023 ![]() Nine out of every 10 rape victims treated by Doctors Without Borders in that country in 2011 were under 18 years old. While rape was endemic during Liberia’s long civil war, nine years since the end of the violence children now make up the bulk of the victims. ![]() (Their full names have been withheld for that reason.) For Caroline the nightmare was not over: she was now six months pregnant.Ĭaroline’s and Joetta’s ages fit an alarming and shifting pattern among rape victims in the African nation. “It’s bad,” said the 5-year-old, “I saw blood.” She was living in a secret shelter for protection. In halting tones, Caroline and the younger girl, 5-year-old Joetta, told of the rapes each had recently suffered. ![]() They only moved when she finished speaking and began to cry. ![]() When Caroline’s turn to speak arrived, her eyes picked a spot on the wall. Follow a sticky hot Liberian Saturday afternoon, doll-faced Caroline, 15, sat across a poorly lit room while a much younger girl talked. ![]()
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