'They kept going until I lost consciousness'. The reality of
rape as a weapon of war  Published 11 June 2014  |   Andrew
Philip/Tearfund Leontine, 28, who lives in Bangui, Central
African Republic, was raped last year  20-year-old Moses was
crying as he tried to tell his story. He knew he was going to
find it difficult so he had asked his pastor to pray for us
first before our conversation.  We were in Uganda, where Moses
had returned to his home village a year or so before, having
spent the previous ten years as a child soldier.  He was
abducted aged nine during the worst of the troubles in northern
Uganda. He lived in constant fear as he was trained to raid
villages and kill people.  His tears were for the shame and
revulsion he felt as he remembered having to rape women and
girls. "I had to conquer women who were like my mother," he
said.  Despite being only a child with no understanding of sex
of any kind - loving or otherwise - he knew that he had to rape
women as he'd been instructed, because he would b