In Crime-hit Nigerian City, Rape Victims Find Their Voice

Port Harcourt, Nigeria, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Dec, 2019 ) :"They forced their way in at around 2am. They raped us. And when they left, they stole our phones and money." In those simple words, Sarah describes the nightmare that she and her flatmate endured when two armed men broke into their apartment in Port Harcourt, Nigeria's oil hub.

The identity of the men was, and remains, a mystery. Both wore masks.

Reeling from shame and fearful of stigma, the 25-year-old did not tell anyone she had been raped.

Not the police, her family, even her friends.

"Here you don't talk about these things," Sarah -- whose name was changed to protect her identity -- told AFP.

Eventually, Sarah, a trained nurse, became worried about her health and plucked up the courage to go to a clinic run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) that specialises in sexual violence.

There she received treatment. Eventually she found the strength to recount her tale to a psychologist.

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