‘They rape us before we can cross’: Women, girls fleeing violence in Mali

A sign on the road near Gao in Northern Mali, reads 'Welcome to the Islamic state of Gao'. Communities have been fleeing the area due to violence from armed groups [File: Jerome Delay/AP]

Ayourou, Niger – It was just a few minutes before 7 o’clock on a Friday evening in early June when Kani* and 10 others fleeing violence in northeastern Mali arrived at a checkpoint in Labbezanga, close to the border with Niger.

Six armed men, three of them wearing military fatigues, at the checkpoint stopped the men and women who had begun their journey from their village on foot the previous day.