A/HRC/22/33 29. Children, sometimes aged between 10 and 12, recruited by MUJAO in Gao and by Ansar Dine in Niafunké were allegedly seen at checkpoints on the outskirts of towns controlled by these groups carrying out patrols on behalf of the “Islamic police”. While some children are handed over by their parents for religious reasons, most are apparently attracted by promises of receiving up to 350,000 CFA francs (CFAF).7 In Gao, MUJAO continues to actively recruit children in madrasas.8 These children receive religious instruction and learn to handle weapons. Parents reportedly receive CFAF 5,000 a month. 30. The Mission is also concerned about the recruitment of talibé children entrusted by their parents to marabouts to receive an Islamic education and, who, in return, are allegedly exploited as beggars. A good many marabouts, who are in fact responsible for these children, have fled the north, leaving their pupils at risk of recruitment. E. Sexual abuse 31. The Mission collected a significant amount of information on alleged sexual abuse by all the armed groups in control of the north. However, the stigmatization of victims is a major obstacle to their care. Sexual abuse is viewed as shameful in Mali, because of the loss of dignity for the families concerned. According to a victim, “in Mali, if you say you have been raped, your life is over”. The girls and women affected are stigmatized and can no longer marry or remarry. Under the circumstances, most cases of sexual abuse are not reported. Medical sources have reported that, in Mali, women do not seek medical advice after being raped. 32. According to some testimony, rapes are committed on ethnic grounds, especially during the offensives of some armed groups. The victims are usually “dark-skinned” people, who are considered inferior by their “fair-skinned” assailants. 33. A second form of sexual abuse faced by women and girls in the north is punitive rape for failing to observe the norms imposed by the extremist rebels, such as dress code and the ban on riding motorcycles. The rape of women and girls in their homes, in the presence of their families, is a form of intimidation and torture. In April 2012, in Gao, there were several such cases carried out by MNLA members during operations to find the relatives of members of the army or pro-government militias. On 2 April, a Sonrhai woman aged 36 years was raped in her home by two men wearing turbans. Bella, a 22-year-old woman from Timbuktu told how, on Tuesday, 3 April, after being accused of not wearing the veil at home, six armed men under the command of Mohammed Ansar Dine Iguin raped her at their base for two hours. 34. In order to legitimize their acts under sharia, Ansar Dine, AQIM and MUJAO are forcing families to make money from marrying their daughters, the youngest of whom are 12 and 13 years old. These girls are often “married” to several rebels in camps, where they are gang-raped every night and then abandoned after a swift divorce. 35. The Mission also received allegations from multiple sources concerning the sexual abuse of women held in detention on the grounds of violating sharia, particularly in women’s prisons in Timbuktu and Gao. 7 8 GE.13-10067 Equivalent to US$ 697. Koranic school. 11