{"id":216774,"date":"2020-01-16T12:50:42","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T18:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=216774"},"modified":"2020-01-15T21:33:10","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T03:33:10","slug":"children-sex-slaves-forced-abortions-colombian-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/children-sex-slaves-forced-abortions-colombian-war\/","title":{"rendered":"HORROR: Children turned into sex slaves, forced into abortions, in Colombian war"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

The long-running conflict in Colombia has been known as the country’s “invisible war,” and it’s been going on for over 50 years. The government in Colombia has been battling crime syndicates, paramilitary groups, and communist guerrilla factions, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Millions more have been displaced, or have “disappeared.” But one especially troubling factor has flown under the radar even more: the allegations of female guerrillas who say they were forced to become sex slaves, even as children, and forced into sterilizations and abortions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Independent recently published a report<\/a> detailing the abuses women say they suffered at the hands of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), one of the guerrilla groups involved in the conflict. \u201cIt was as if I was a new toy,\u201d Yamile Noscu\u00e9 told the Independent. \u201cI basically became their whore in camouflage.” Noscu\u00e9 said she was abducted at the age of 15, and taken to a guerrilla camp where she was abused, and said she was subjected to the degrading treatment for two years. \u201cAfter the commander has touched a girl, then anyone else can too, and whenever they want,” she recounted. “The rapes are constant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Female superiors allegedly looked the other way, too. Noscu\u00e9 said she was told that being raped was her “contribution” to the cause. Meanwhile, things only got worse for her.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Woman escapes from North Korea, tells horror story of forced abortions<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the rape I ended up pregnant. I didn\u2019t even know who the father was. It could have been any one of scores of men,\u201d she said. \u201cThey held me down and gave me pills. I was sick and I was bleeding. It was so painful.” Noscu\u00e9 made the courageous decision to speak out about her abuse, but it’s come at a cost. She says she’s been followed and threatened by masked men, who tell her to stay silent.<\/p>\n

Another woman who spoke to the Independent used a pseudonym, “Camila,” because she was too afraid to use her real name. Like Noscu\u00e9, she was abducted, in her case at the age of 14. She was also raped, and when she became pregnant, she was given an injection and operated on against her will. \u201cI just remember waking up and I was bleeding a lot,\u201d she said. The abortion was botched horribly, meaning Camila now suffers lifelong medical problems.<\/p>\n

Mariana Ardila, a lawyer for Women’s Link Worldwide, an NGO which submitted a report to the government, said this wasn’t surprising. \u201cAbortions were conducted in unsanitary and unhygienic conditions,” she told the Independent. “Sometimes they used drugs or unorthodox methods to terminate pregnancies, other times they used surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n