Child rape is far too common in some war-torn African countries

FOR A FLEETING instant it is possible to believe that Yei (not her real name) is a normal, if shy, three-year-old. “Smart Brave Amazing'' declares her pyjama top, the words smiling up in red, yellow and green. But the woman Yei clings to is not her mother and the building she is in is not her home. She is in a UN-funded government shelter for survivors of sexual assault in northern Liberia. A few months earlier her grandmother trusted a familiar motorbike taxi driver to take Yei to her parents. Instead he raped her. Yei spent two weeks in hospital as doctors tried to repair the damage. She no longer speaks and has been in the shelter for three months. Her parents, wary of the rapist’s family, are scared to bring her home.