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Forgotten Kenyan conflict exposed Forgotten Kenyan conflict exposed
(about 1 hour later)
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres has exposed torture and appalling levels of sexual violence in a conflict in western Kenya. Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has exposed torture and appalling levels of sexual violence in a conflict in western Kenya.
It says people there are caught up in fighting which it claims is being ignored by the international community. It says people there are caught up in fighting which it claims is being ignored by the international community. A major military operation to neutralise a militia group called the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF) has left thousands of civilians trapped.
A major military operation to neutralise a militia group called the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF) has left thousands of civilians trapped.
They are victims of "indiscriminate violence" on both sides, MSF says.They are victims of "indiscriminate violence" on both sides, MSF says.
The MSF report paints a picture of a civilian population caught between a heavy-handed military - accused of extra judicial killings - and a vicious militia, the SLDF, which has taken up arms in the fertile Mount Elgon region over a land allocation scheme it considers unfair. The MSF report paints a picture of a civilian population caught between a heavy-handed military - accused of extra judicial killings - and a vicious militia, the SLDF, the BBC's Karen Allen reports from Nairobi.
The report sets out testimonies of men, suspected to have been militia members, being subjected to torture and appalling levels of sexual violence at the hands of the police and the military. I saw men beaten on their genitals, and their testicles pulled out Male witness
The militia has taken up arms in the fertile Mount Elgon region over a land allocation scheme it considers unfair.
One woman cited in the report described how the militia took five people a day to the mountains and killed them.
"If they targeted a home, they took every member of that family, irrespective of age and sex," she said.
Torture
The militia extorted fines from people who were drunk, chopping their ears off if they had no money and killing them if they resisted, she added.
"One of my brothers-in-law tried to resist one day and his head was chopped off and his body was thrown into a pit latrine," she was quoted as saying.
The report also sets out testimonies of men, suspected to have been militia members, being subjected to torture and appalling levels of sexual violence at the hands of the police and the military.
"I saw men beaten on their genitals, and their testicles pulled out," said one man who had been taken to a screening centre Kapkota.
"The military told us to confess we had guns, otherwise the torture would continue," he said.
MSF has also condemned the cramped conditions in which suspects are held during pre-trial detention and warns that the violent response of the military is simply making things worse for an already traumatised civilian population.MSF has also condemned the cramped conditions in which suspects are held during pre-trial detention and warns that the violent response of the military is simply making things worse for an already traumatised civilian population.