A Libyan doctor has revealed that 259 women said they were raped by militiamen loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
During a question and answer session, the doctor found that 10,000 people were suffering from post-traumatic stress, 4,000 children with psychological problems, and 259 women came forward with accounts of being rape.
The London-trained child psychologist was working with children traumatised by the fighting in Libya, but was surprised to have been approached by their troubled mothers who felt they could trust her with their dark secrets, The Independent reports.
"We found 10,000 people with PTSD, 4,000 children suffering psychological problems and 259 raped women," she said, adding that the number of rape victims could be much higher, but the women are apparently scared to report about it.
There is a whole lot of stigma associated with rape across the world, and its impact is much higher in Muslim societies like Libya where it is considered extremely shameful for a woman’s family.
Victims could even be abandoned by their families and, in some extreme cases, left in the desert to die.
"These women were terrified their families would find out – two were married, one was single. They only came to me because they were terrified that they may have been infected with HIV," she added.
The Gaddafi regime had been using rape as a ‘weapon’ to retain itself in power following the uprising in the country.