Almost 300 Women Report Being Raped by Qaddafi's Militiamen

A psychologist in Libya working with people whose lives have been forever altered by the war has discovered 259 women who report they were raped by members of Qaddafi's Militia. Dr. Seham Sergewa learned of the rapes after distributing a questionnaire among refugee camps asking citizens how they were affected. Al-Arabiya:

"I was really surprised when I started visiting these areas, first by the number of people suffering from PTSD, including the large number of children among them, and then by the number of women who had been raped from both the east and west of the country," Dr. Sergewa said in an interview with The Associated Press...

"We found 10,000 people with PTSD, 4,000 children suffering psychological problems and 259 raped women," she said, adding that she believes the number of rape victims is many times higher but that woman are afraid to report the attacks.

The women said they had been raped by Qaddafi's militias in numerous cities and towns: Benghazi, Tobruk, Brega, Bayda and Ajdabiya (where the initial three mothers hail from) and Saloum in the east; and Misrata in the west.

Many of the women did not sign their names on the questionnaires, reporting their horrors anonymously. Read the full devastating story at Al-Arabiya.