One teacher at a school in Tripoli recalled how the girls were all very young. “Some were only 14,” she said. “They would simply take the girl they wanted. They had no conscience, no morals, not an iota of mercy even though she was a mere child”. Parents in the area around the schools lived in fear, this activity was no secret. They knew that if their child was chosen there was literally nothing they could do. What was going on behind closed doors was common knowledge. “The girls he wanted would be rounded up and sent to him”.

“One just disappeared and they never found her again, despite her father and brothers searching for her. Another was found three months later, cut, raped and lying in the middle of a park. She had been left for dead”. The people of Libya have lived in fear for so long that they’re still unwilling to talk about what happened to them. One girl who was 15 years old at the time has spoken out anonymously about what she went through…

☛ Next Up: Central African Republic: Religious War And Cannibalism