Robinson in stark warning over rape

RAPE and violence against women and children is now as pressing an issue as food and shelter for communities devastated by conflict, former president Mary Robinson has warned.

The human rights activist said her work in the past year had repeatedly brought to her attention examples of rape being used to further crush people already left extremely vulnerable by hunger and displacement.

Mrs Robinson visited the world’s largest refugee camp, the Dadaab camp in Kenya, in July to see the conditions awaiting people fleeing famine and violence in neighbouring Somalia.