Wartime rape is a persistent and brutal aspect of conflict, whether during or in the aftermath of hostilities. In the recent warfare in Libya, as well as in most civil and international armed conflicts, women were subjected to different forms of visible and invisible violence, including sexual exploitation and abuse. However, the most recent news reports reveal that the wartime rape of women and minors in Libya was systematic and adopted by Moammar Gadhafi’s troops on a massive scale and as a strategic weapon of war, leaving thousands of physically and psychologically devastated women. It has been reported that Gadhafi himself had ordered the supply of anti-impotence drugs given to his soldiers and authorized them to rape Libyan opponent women in a brutal continuing campaign.

Despite uncertainty about the exact numbers and locations of Libyan women rape victims, and the difficulty of investigating allegations of sexual violence conducted during armed conflict, high-ranking officers in the Libyan Revolution’s Military Council have affirmed that Libyan rebels found cellphone pictures and videos of rape, condoms and Viagra in the tanks and uniform pockets of Gadhafi loyalists who were captured on the battlefield. Moreover, Seham Sergewa, a psychologist in Benghazi Hospital, identified tens of Libyan women rape victims and interviewed many of them in eastern Libya and along the Tunisian border.

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