Serene
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Cox's Bazar, BangladeshCNN —
As tears roll down her face and her body shivers with pain, Hamida cradles her 4-year-old daughter and baby boy on her lap, comforting them as they cry for their father.
The 22-year-old ethnic Rohingya is surviving on the kindness of fellow refugees in a camp near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh – and trying to process the horrors she endured in neighboring Myanmar, where a civil war is raging between the country’s military and rebel groups including the Arakan Army.
“After they entered my home, they hit me, beat me, and I was struggling to get free when they raped me,” Hamida says. “For at least one hour, they tied me up.”
Hamida – who asked to only use her first name for fear of reprisals – says seven Arakan Army soldiers gang-raped her during the attack in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state in late July.
“I screamed, so they closed my mouth with their hands,” she says. “They raped me. They beat me with their guns. They kicked me. Still, I can’t move (without) pain.”
As tears roll down her face and her body shivers with pain, Hamida cradles her 4-year-old daughter and baby boy on her lap, comforting them as they cry for their father.
The 22-year-old ethnic Rohingya is surviving on the kindness of fellow refugees in a camp near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh – and trying to process the horrors she endured in neighboring Myanmar, where a civil war is raging between the country’s military and rebel groups including the Arakan Army.
“After they entered my home, they hit me, beat me, and I was struggling to get free when they raped me,” Hamida says. “For at least one hour, they tied me up.”
Hamida – who asked to only use her first name for fear of reprisals – says seven Arakan Army soldiers gang-raped her during the attack in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state in late July.
“I screamed, so they closed my mouth with their hands,” she says. “They raped me. They beat me with their guns. They kicked me. Still, I can’t move (without) pain.”
