A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

I was befriended by an elderly woman, Doreen, in the rebel camp. On August
24, 1995, this older lady was sent to fetch water for the fighters. They trusted
her not to run off. We determined to escape together, and on this particular
day, we went out to fetch water together. Doreen simply said that she liked
me and wanted to help me out. I think that Doreen was feeling sorry for me
because I was new and was always crying and was one of the youngest girls
to be taken as a bush wife at the camp. Doreen had a bit of money and we
were able to get to Ivory Coast. But the rebels were coming back and forth
across the border easily so we decided to move on to Ghana. 144
Assistance was not always altruistic, however, and sometimes
women harbored other motives. For example, there were
accounts of women expecting services in return for their
protection. One woman who cooked for Alhaji Kromah’s men
took care of a teenage girl, but only if she had sex with her son. 145
Finally, civilian women also played roles of protector and
caretaker of others. As they fled, many women found children
who needed protection and took them out of the country to keep
them safe. One statement giver described her sons’ experience
after she became separated from them during an explosion. 146
The 12-year-old boy ran in one direction, where the statement
giver’s friend took him in and cared for him over the next two
years in Kakata. The other three boys, six, seven and eight years
of age, walked from Monrovia to Gbarnga without money or
food. 147 They met a woman along the way who gave them food
and took care of them for one week until they hitched a ride on
a truck. 148
gender-BaSed violence in flight from the conflict
Many women experienced extreme violence in flight from the conflict. Numerous statement givers
reported beatings, rape, and other sexual violence as they fled their homes and the country. Women
were particularly vulnerable to violations at checkpoints. One statement giver recounted her experience
at a checkpoint when she was 14 years old:
A man took me out of the checkpoint queue and led me to the back of a
little hut a short distance away. There, I saw the dead and bloody bodies of
a number of young girls and I recall feeling petrified. I did not know what
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