In November 2023, British media reported on the use of sexual violence in the recent wave of violence in Manipur, India. This follows a conflict which erupted in May 2023, described by the U.N. as a “community conflict between the predominantly Hindu Meitei and the predominantly Christian Kuki ethnic communities.” As they added, “by mid-August 2023, an estimated 160 persons had reportedly been killed, mostly from the Kuki ethnic community, and over 300 injured. The conflict also reportedly resulted in tens of thousands of people from the communities being displaced, thousands of homes and hundreds of churches being burnt down, as well the destruction of farmland, loss of crops and loss of livelihood.” However, it did not stop there. According to the BBC report, two women were allegedly stripped, paraded naked and gang raped by a mob in north-east India. Subsequently, their ordeal was made public in a viral video.
One of the women is reported to say: “I was treated like an animal. It was hard enough to live with that trauma, but then two months later when the video of the attack went viral, I almost lost all hope to continue living.” The second woman added: “I find it hard to face other people, even in my own community. My pride is gone. I will never be the same again.” After the attack, both women had to flee their towns and now live in hiding.
More similar stories are likely to come to light.
Indeed, in August 2023, U.N. experts wrote to India in relation to the situation in Manipur and asked for urgent responses. In a few of their identified cases, “a group of drunk Meitei men and boys, some as young as 15 years old, allegedly dragged a woman and a teenage girl and raped them. (…) women were reportedly attacked at their place of work by a mob that was targeting Kuki women. These women were reportedly locked in a room and subjected to physical violence for two hours, and were later found dead.” They further added, “Women and girls have reportedly been attacked in their homes, dragged in the street, tortured or severely beaten before being raped and killed. One victim was allegedly hacked to death. In some of these cases, the bodies of the victims are yet to be found or recuperated. Reportedly, corpses of dead women have also been burnt by their assailants as part of the attack (as they had not followed the proper burial rites associated with each of the two communities).”
This story was originally published in forbes.com. Read the full story here .