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HIV-positive genocide widows seek US help

    JOHANNESBURG

    Rwandan women infected with HIV through mass rapes during the country's 1994 genocide have asked the US to assist them in obtaining anti-AIDS medications.

    This week marks the 10th anniversary of the genocide, when Hutu extremists killed more than 800,000 minority Tutsis and Hutu moderates and raped an estimated 500,000 Rwandan women.

    A local organisation, Widows of the Genocide, polled and tested 1,200 of its 25,000 members in 2003 and found that 80 percent had been raped and 66 percent were HIV-positive

    Few of the women can afford antiretroviral drugs and many "feel forgotten by an outside world that has failed to help them" access treatment.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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