A/HRC/23/57 had complained of their cells being small, dark and lacking in ventilation and the temperature inside them being too high.5 F. Sexual violence 43. The progressive improvement in security conditions in the north of the country and the easier access to victims have made it possible to verify the allegations of sexual violence committed by members of armed groups mentioned in the High Commissioner’s previous report. The Mission conducted 19 interviews during which allegations were made of sexual violence having been used against women and girls by members of armed groups, including MNLA, AQIM, MUJAO and Ansar Dine, in the north of the country between January and December 2012. 44. The information collected by the Mission indicates that members of armed groups frequently abducted their victims before sexually assaulting them. In some cases, the victims were assaulted either in their own homes or in centres of detention. Information analysed by the OHCHR Mission gives grounds to believe that, in most cases, the alleged perpetrators were members of MNLA. One victim interviewed by the Mission said that she and her sister had been raped in front of their mother by four men in Gao, in early June 2012, and that she had fallen pregnant as a result of the rape. She stated that her aggressors were members of MNLA and were wearing a military uniform and a turban. Another victim described having being harassed for months by members of one of the armed groups before being captured by them and taken to the Banque Malienne de Solidarité (BMS) in Timbuktu, where she was raped by five men in December 2012. It should be noted that, according to a number of testimonies collected by the Mission, during the occupation of Timbuktu armed groups used the BMS premises as a detention centre for women. 45. The information collected by the Mission indicates that most of the rape victims were Songhay and Bella women. However, it is difficult to ascertain whether the victims were targeted because of their ethnic origin. For example, in Ménaka it appears that Bella women accounted for most of the rape victims but in Gao the victims were predominantly Songhay women. This finding could be a reflection of the composition of the population in these two municipalities, where these two ethnic groups account for the majority of the population. 46. The Mission also received information from various sources, including in some cases from family members of victims, alleging that girls had been forced to marry members of armed groups in Gao and Timbuktu. According to the reports, in most cases these forced marriages were followed by multiple rapes in the armed groups’ camps and lasted no more than two or three weeks, after which the girls were sent back to their families. 47. The Mission noted that a number of organizations were endeavouring to document and collect information about cases of sexual and gender-based violence, including, in particular, conflict-related rapes committed in the north in 2012. On the basis of this information, on 6 March 2013 the Minister for the Family, the Advancement of Women and Children revealed that 200 cases of women and girls being raped by the different armed groups had been documented, with the victims’ ages ranging from 9 to 60 years’ old. 48. It is difficult to determine with any precision the scale of the sexual violence committed in the north of Mali since the occupation by armed groups began in January 2012, because the criteria used to record these acts of violence do not appear to have been 5 GE.13-15228 In April, the average temperature in Bamako varies between 38 and 44 degrees Celsius. 11