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Mental health in post-genocide Rwanda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Ian Palmer  and
Nsanzumuhire Firmin
Ian Palmer
Affiliation:
London, UK, email [email protected]
Nsanzumuhire Firmin
Affiliation:
Ngarama Hospital, Rwanda, email [email protected]
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The children who experienced the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda are now in their mid to late 20s. It is almost impossible to comprehend the scale of the terror and destruction of Rwanda's societal infrastructure between 6 April and 16 July 1994. While the world remained inactive, Rwanda, a small impoverished central African state, experienced the murder of about 1 million of its citizens; it also saw the terrorising, humiliation and rape of countless thousands. Although women and children were directly targeted, some actively engaged in atrocities. About 300000 children were murdered, a significant number at the hands of other children. The level of terror differed across the country and escape was frequently by luck alone. A UNICEF (2004) study of 3000 children revealed that 80% had experienced death in the family, 70% had witnessed a killing or injury, 35% saw other children killing or injuring other children, 61% were threatened with being killed and 90% believed they would die (Human Rights Watch, 2003). Of the 250000 women raped, 30% were between 13 and 35 years of age, 67% developed HIV/AIDS and 20 000 births resulted (Donovan, 2002).

Type
Thematic Papers – Children Caught Up In Conflict
Information
International Psychiatry , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , November 2011 , pp. 86 - 87
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 2011

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