mary survivor rape war

Read The Story Of How Mary Survived Rape During The War Period In South Sudan


mary survivor rape war

Mary is a survivor of rape in South Sudan, and her story is a point of interest following the disasters in the region.

Initially, her husband was shot, and then, soldiers killed her young sons, ages 5 and 7. What’s more, they snatched her daughter from her hands, leaving her with nobody.

Mary hails from the Nuer tribe in South Sudan.

Recently, the people have been experiencing a power struggle between the country’s President Salva Kiir, of the Dinka tribe, and his Vice President, Riek Machar, a Nuer.

They fought this war based on ethnic reasons, and the Northern part of the country has been turned into a wasteland.

According to the United Nations, 50,000 people have been killed, and close to 4 million people face famine, 2.2 million fled their homes, and they have all told the story of severe maltreatment, torture and manslaughter.

Among these people who suffered the adverse effects of the war, Mary and her family members were some of the people who sought freedom and looked forward to gaining refuge. They were at a U.N. peacekeeping base in Bentiu when they encountered Kiir’s forces on the road in June 2014.

According to Mary, 27, the soldiers told her that they perceive the Nuers to be rebels, and the reason her sons were killed is that they don’t want them to grow up becoming fighters.

“We don’t kill the women and the girls,” the soldiers told Mary.

“They said they would only rape us. As if rape were different than death,” Mary adds.

Mary retreated to a safe house in neighboring Uganda run by Make Way Partners, an American Christian organization that provides housing, medical care and schooling for South Sudanese orphans and victims of human trafficking.

Following the murder of her husband and sons, five soldiers forced her to watch them rape her 10-year old daughter, Nyalaat.


“I couldn’t even see my little girl anymore. I could only see blood.” Mary says. After they had raped her daughter, they played a game of taking turns with mother and daughter, raping them both.

Within a few hours, Nyalaat died and Mary says that she wanted to die too. However, Mary didn’t give up. She rather made it to a U.N. camp for civilians displaced by war.

This didn’t stop the soldiers from attacking evebtuaeve. The violence continued, and the soldiers were still able to make their way into the camp and rape all the women they were able to get their hands on.

Mary adds:

“It happened to all of us: little girls, grandmothers. They didn’t care. If you calm down when they are raping you, they won’t beat you. But if you resist, they will beat you, even so much to use the gun in you.”

Read more in the link below:

Rape and War on Time Website





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