Rape in African refugee camps is contributing to the spread of HIV/AIDS and war-torn regions of the continent could soon be faced with soaring infection rates as a result, according to Damien Rwegera, adviser to the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS  for conflict zones in West and Central Africa.

"There is widespread rape -- people are no longer bound by social conventions," Rwegera said Tuesday at the regional UNAIDS office in Abidjan.  "The soldiers rape, the men rape -- especially as up to 95% of people in a refugee camp can be women and children because the men are dispersed."

Little information is available on infection rates in refugee camps in southern Guinea, Sierra Leone and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo because measuring infection levels is almost impossible under the current volatile conditions.  Rwegera said that in some areas, such as the DRC, rape by the military has become systematic.  "We saw it during the (1994) Rwandan genocide, and now we are seeing it in Congo," Rwegera said.

Rwegera pointed out that despite the known risk of the spread of HIV among refugee populations, there is little coordination by authorities to control the epidemic in conflict zones.  "At the moment, everyone is doing their own thing," Rwegera said.  "We need regional mechanisms so that everyone knows who is doing what and who is going to pay for it. ... We can't go on like this."

Rwegera's office is currently working with other aid agencies to create an AIDS task force that could operate in Africa's conflict areas.  The office is also trying to devise a blueprint for aid workers in conflict zones on how to assess and prevent HIV/AIDS cases through condom use and education.  Rwegera also said that UNAIDS is not ruling out the possibility of distributing anti-retrovirals in refugee camps in an effort to treat infections already in progress and reduce the risk for refugees of developing full-blown AIDS (Alistair Thomson, Reuters/ReliefWeb, 20 Jun).

The Women's and Children's Peace Association Center in the eastern DRC province of South Kivu is alleging that 2,300 internally displaced women have been raped so far this year by Rwandan Interahamwe militia and Congolese Mayi-Mayi fighters.  The group is launching an appeal for intervention and assistance from the international community and "called on the international community to condemn and punish all those responsible so that nothing like this ever occurs again."  The group noted the risk that the women were exposed to HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (Integrated Regional Information Networks, 20 Jun).