NEW YORK
The UN special representative on sexual violence said Wednesday she will visit the Middle East amid reports of sexual attacks being increasingly used as a "tactic of terror" by terrorist groups in the region.
Zainab Hawa Bangura told the UN Security Council that she would depart Thursday for her first visit to the Middle East, which is expected to include stops in Syria and Iraq.
She said she would also meet refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, where the UN says as many as 3.8 million Syrians fleeing violence in their homeland are registered as refugees.
“The visit is undertaken against the backdrop of a catastrophic new trend of the use of sexual violence as a ‘tactic of terror’ by extremist groups, not only in Iraq and Syria, but also in Somalia, Nigeria and Mali,” she said.
Bangura said the link between sexual violence and the strategic ideology of extremist groups was a critical new challenge, urging the Council to address the issue on its resolutions targeting terrorist groups such as Daesh and al-Qaeda.
The international community must "send a clear message that the world will not tolerate the use of sexual violence as a tactic of war and terror," she said.
