Today, MSF releases Mount Elgon: Does Anybody Care?, a shocking report on the forgotten crisis taking place in Mount Elgon, Kenya.
Mount Elgon children are badly affected as around 60,000 people are forced to flee their homes. Kenya, 2007.
Remi Carrier/MSF
For over a year, the people of this region have found themselves trapped between violent militia groups and an indiscriminate and brutal police campaign. In the world’s media, the plight of the people of Mount Elgon continues to go unnoticed. Does Anybody Care? seeks to address this lack of attention by bringing the victims of this unacceptable violence, and the atrocities they have endured, to the public eye.
The report contains first-hand accounts of murder, abduction, torture and sexual violence; whole communities living in fear and tens of thousands of people being forced to leave their homes and villages:
“At night, about seven soldiers broke into my house and found me and my wife. They started flogging me and went on and on. When they were tired of beating me ruthlessly, they opened my trousers and pulled my testicles. The part that hurts me most is when they took my wife into the bushes and raped her in turns, leaving her unconscious—until she was found the next morning.” – A man in his 30’s
Tragically, this man’s experience is far from unique.
MSF is committed to speaking out wherever we see humanitarian crises.