AFP
The number of rape cases, including those involving children, has been on the rise in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state for the past few years amid armed conflict and ongoing political instability in the region, according to local aid groups.
Six child rape cases were reported in 2018, five in 2019, 20 in 2020, and five in the first half of 2021, according to Legal Clinic Myanmar, High Court lawyer Mya Thuzar from the Rakhine state branch office of the Legal Clinic Myanmar in Sittwe told RFA on Thursday.
“More and more child rapes are occurring, and it is very troubling for children,” said Oo Khin Thein of the Sittwe-based Rakhine Youth New Generation Network. “We are worried because we are seeing a lot of fighting and political instability and, in the midst of it all, the complications of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
According to a statement from the Legal Aid Group, the number of child molestation in Myanmar rose sharply in Yangon and Mandalay, followed by Rakhine and Mon states in 2020.