Women in African Refugee Camps: Gender Based Violence against Female Refugees: The case of Mai Ayni Refugee Camp, Northern Ethiopia

Book excerpt: The study has found that female refugees in refugee camps are exposed to sexual violence, physical violence and socio-economic violence including attempted rape, rape, gang rape, physical injuries, discrimination and stigmatization and denial of access to services. The book also discloses that male refugees and intimate partners of female refugees are the prime gender based violence perpetrators of female refugees in Mai Ayni refugee camp. Moreover, the study reveales that idleness, economic dependency, physical insecurity, lack of awareness, collapse of social and family structure as well as poor reporting, coordination and legal enforcement mechanisms are identified as causes/risk factors for gender based violence against female refugees in refugee camps. Moreover, mens’ feelings of ‘loss of power’ in the camp, which challenge male identity as superior to female, lead male refugees to anger and make female refugees vulnerable to different forms of gender based violence. Consequently, because of gender based violence, female refugees in refugee camps have to fear short and long lasting damaging consequences on their lives in terms of health, both physical and psycho-social.