More people report sexual violence in SA ‘ MSF

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The organisation said in a statement that ‘in 2007, our teams treated well over 12,000 victims of sexual assault worldwide, in both conflict settings and stable environments. That is about 35 people every day in MSF projects alone”.

Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) says there is a worrying trend of rising numbers in cases of sexual violence which they are confronted with. With particular reference to South Africa, the MSF’s medical co-ordinator for the Khayelitsha clinic in the Western Cape, Dr Genine Josias, told a media briefing in Johannesburg that said ‘in 2007 the rate of sexual violence cases presented to their clinic stood at 957 in 2007, but in 2008, the figure escalated to 1 173’.

‘What we can say is that there are now more incidents of reported rape, and we find that over the past five years, at the centre, there is an eight to 10 percent increase of the numbers’, said Josias.

‘We find that about 80 percent of the people come within 72 hours of the actual rape happening because we have gone on a big marketing campaign in the area where we work. We want people to access medication for HIV’, she added.

The humanitarian medical aid agency said the increase in the number of reported rapes, is not only reflective of the sexual abuse women endure, but also young boys and older men also fall victim. ‘About six percent of our patients at the centre are male, in Khayelitsha. And 98 per cent of them are boys under the age of about 10 ‘ 11’, said Josias.

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