Poverty-stricken parents of girls as young as fourteen
in Swaziland are giving them to soldiers for sex in exchange for food, a
newspaper reported.
The Observer of
Saturday newspaper in Swaziland reported (6 May 2017) that members of the
Umbuto Swaziland Defence Force (USDF) have been accused of taking advantage of
poor families all over the kingdom’s remote rural areas. They give away food
parcels to young and needy girls in exchange for sexual favours.
The newspaper reported, ‘Some families have allegedly
adopted the system of giving away their young girls to the cunning soldiers in
exchange for food in their homes.’ The parcels are said to contain mealie-meal,
chunks of meat, beans and vegetables.
Nearly seven in ten people in the kingdom ruled by
King Mswati III as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, live in dire poverty, with incomes of less
than US$2 per day. About 26 percent of children under five suffer from chronic
malnutrition.
A health caregiver in the Lubombo region told the
newspaper, ‘It is an open secret that soldiers are having a field day all over
the country. As health caregivers we are worried as we come across a number of
cases where we feel the young girls are being abused.’
She added, ‘Even 14-year-old children are sold out
cheap and this is painful.’
The newspaper quoted a soldier it did not name saying,
‘We get just about any girl we want. Nobody forces anyone but we reach a mutual
agreement with the girls.’
The health caregiver said, ‘Some of them even loiter
around the army barracks and camps just to be noticed by the cunning soldiers
who then pounce on them in exchange for food that they duly need.’
She said, ‘What is more agonising is that some
families even send their young girls to loiter around where the soldiers [are]
to be noticed so that they can bring something home for their entire families
to eat.’
The health caregiver said, ‘We have to take care of
them when they acquire STDs [sexually-transmitted diseases] especially since
most them are still very young and afraid to go straight to the hospital or are
just ignorant of their situation.
‘But because of their poverty plight they are forced
to engage in acts that are immoral and dangerous to them.’
See also
PROBE
INTO SWAZI CHILD EXPLOITATION
‘SEX
STARVED’ MEN RAPE CHILDREN
SWAZI
CHILD RAPE IS NOT UNUSUAL
No comments:
Post a Comment