“The militia at the barriers said they would protect me, but instead they kept me and raped me in their homes. One militia member would keep me for two or three days and then another would choose me… I managed to flee Kigali and when I returned, I learnt that my husband had been killed.” (Survivor of the Rwandan genocide, HIV positive woman from Kigali) In conflict situations, women and girls are at greatly increased risk of physical and sexual violence. Many women and girls are subjected to rape including gang rape, forced marriages with enemy soldiers, sexual slavery, and other forms of violence (being forced to witness others being raped, mutilations, etc.). Many have fled their homes, have lost their families and livelihoods,

and may have little or no access to health care. All these factors create conditions in which women and girls’ vulnerability to HIV is disproportionately increased. This information bulletin is the second in a series highlighting the intersections of violence against women and HIV/AIDS and it focuses on sexual violence against women in conflict settings and their risks for acquiring HIV.  Violence against women and girls has been a feature of all recent conflicts. In many of these conflicts, some

of which have been regarded as ethnic cleansing, rape has been and is used as a deliberate strategy to brutalize and humiliate civilians and as a weapon of war or political power. It is also likely that all forms of violence against women, including intimate partner violence,  increase during conflicts and this may be linked to a ready availability of weapons, high levels of frustration among men, and a general breakdown in law and order.