The Trauma of Women Who Were Raped and Children Who Were Born as a Result of Rape during the Rwandan Genocide: Cases from the Rwandan Diaspora

Throughout history, rape has been used as a weapon of war and genocide in conflict zones. In the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi population, systematic sexual molestation, mutilation and rape of Tutsi women and girls were used as a tool to terrorize and annihilate the ethnic Tutsis. The aim of this study is twofold: to investigate (1) the trauma experienced by women who were raped and (2) the trauma of children born as a result of rape during the 1994 Rwandan genocide against the Tutsis and its aftermath. A questionnaire was completed by 341 members of the Rwandan diaspora, over 20 years of age (166 males, 175 females), who are living in Finland and Belgium. Of the women, 18 (10.3%) had been exposed to rape, and 9 individuals (2.6%) were born as a result of rape. The findings indicate that the women who had been raped experienced a much more severe trauma than the children who were born as a result of rape.