Foreign News
In a Haitian city ruled by gangs, young rape survivor raises baby she was told to abort
Warning: This story contains accounts of rape and other violence that readers may find distressing.
Helene was 17 years old when a gang attacked her neighbourhood in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.
She strokes her baby daughter, asleep in her lap, while describing how armed men abducted her as she tried to flee, and held her for over two months.
“They raped me and beat me every single day. Several different men. I didn’t even know their names, they were masked,” says the young woman, whose name we have changed to protect her identity. “Some of the things they did to me are too painful to share with you.”
“I fell pregnant, they kept telling me I must abort the pregnancy and I said ‘no’. This baby could be the only one I ever have.”
She managed to escape while the gang was caught up in fighting to maintain territory. Now 19, she has spent the past year raising her daughter in a safe house in a suburb of the city.
The safe house is home to at least 30 girls and young women who sleep in bunk beds in colourfully painted rooms.
Helene is the oldest rape survivor here. The youngest is just 12. Playing and dancing on the balcony in a blue polka dot dress, she looks much younger than her age, having suffered from malnutrition in the past. Staff tell us she has been raped multiple times.
Rape and other sexual violence is surging in Haiti as armed gangs expand their control across Port-au-Prince and beyond.
The Caribbean island nation has been engulfed in a wave of gang violence since the assassination in 2021 of the then-president, Jovenel Moïse.
It is hard to measure the scale of sexual violence. Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) runs a clinic in central Port-au-Prince for women who have experienced sexual abuse. Data it has shared exclusively with the BBC shows patient numbers have nearly tripled since 2021.
The gangs are known for sweeping into neighbourhoods and killing dozens of people. MSF says multiple gang rapes of women and girls are often part of these large-scale attacks. From survivors’ accounts, it is clear that gangs have been using rape to terrorise and subjugate entire communities.
The BBC has challenged gang leaders about accounts of killings and rapes. One previously told us they do not control the actions of their members and believe they have a “duty” to fight the state. Another said “when we are fighting we are possessed – we are no longer human”.
“Patients have started to share very, very difficult stories since 2021,” says Diana Manilla Arroyo, MSF’s head of mission in Haiti.
“Survivors talk about two or four or seven, or up to 20 aggressors,” she says, adding that more women now say they have been threatened with weapons or knocked unconscious.
Women are also reporting more frequently that their assailants are under 18, she adds.
In a drop-in centre in another part of the city, four women – ranging in age from late 20s to 70 – describe being attacked in front of their children and husbands.
“Our neighbourhood was attacked, I went back home only to find my mum, my dad, my sister, all were murdered. They killed them and then burnt the house down, with them inside it,” one woman says.
After surveying her devastated home, she was about to leave the neighbourhood when she encountered gang members. “They raped me – I had my six-year-old with me. They raped her too,” she continues. “Then they killed my younger brother in front of us.”
“Whenever my daughter looks at me, she’s sad and crying.”
The other women recount attacks that follow a similar pattern – murder, rape and arson.
Sexual violence is just one element of the crisis that has engulfed Haiti. UN agencies say more than a tenth of the population – 1.3 million people – have fled their homes, and half the population faces acute hunger.
Haiti has had no elected leadership since the assassination of Moïse. A Transitional Presidential Council and a series of prime ministers it has appointed are tasked with running the country and organising elections.
Rival gangs have formed an alliance, turning their weapons on the Haitian state rather than each other.
Since we last visited in December, the situation has deteriorated. Hundreds of thousands more people have been displaced. More than 4,000 people have been killed in the first half of 2025, compared to 5,400 in the whole of 2024, according to the UN.
The gangs are estimated to have increased their control from 85% to 90% of the capital, seizing key neighbourhoods, trade routes and public infrastructure, despite efforts by a Kenyan-led, UN-backed security force.
We join the international force as they patrol a gang-controlled area, but within minutes, one of the tyres on their armoured vehicle is shot out and the operation ends.
Members of the force rarely leave their armoured vehicles. Experts say the gangs continue to acquire powerful weapons and maintain the upper hand.
In recent months, the Haitian authorities have contracted mercenaries to help wrest back control.
A source within the Haitian security forces told the BBC that private military companies, including one from the US, are operating on the ground, and using drones to attack gang leaders.
He showed us drone footage he says is of one gang leader, Ti Lapli, being targeted in an explosion. He says Ti Lapli was left in a critical condition, though the BBC has not been able to confirm this.
But around the city, the fear of the gangs remains. In many neighbourhoods, vigilante groups are taking security into their own hands, further increasing the numbers of young men with weapons on the streets.
“We’re not going to let them [the gangs] come here and kill us – steal everything we have, burn cars, burn houses, kill kids,” says a man using the name “Mike”.
He says he operates with a group in Croix-des-Prés, a bustling market area close to gang-controlled territory.
As gunfire rings out in the distance, no-one flinches. People here are used to it.
He says the gangs pay young boys to join, and set up checkpoints where they demand money from residents passing through.
“Of course everyone is afraid,” he tells us. “We feel alone trying to protect the women and children. As the gangs keep spreading, we know our area could be next.”
Humanitarian agencies say the situation is deteriorating and women are among the hardest hit, with many of them facing the double trauma of sexual violence and displacement.
Lola Castro, the regional director of the UN’s World Food Programme, says Port-au-Prince “is the worst place in the world to be a woman”.
Women here are also likely to feel the impact of cuts to humanitarian aid programmes, she adds.
Haiti has long been one of the largest recipients of funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which President Donald Trump has slashed, dubbing it “wasteful”.
When we visited in June, Ms Castro said the WFP was distributing its last stocks of US-funded food aid.
Food provision protects women, she explained, because it saves them from having to be out in the streets begging or looking for food.
Humanitarian workers here also fear that cuts may soon affect support for victims of violence in places like the safe house where Helene lives.
And Ms Manilla Arroyo from MSF says funding for contraception has also been reduced: “Many of our patients already have children. Many of them are under the age of 18 with children. The risk of pregnancy represents many, many new challenges for them.”
Helene and other women in the safe house often sit and chat together on a balcony that looks out across Port-au-Prince, but many of them are too afraid to leave the security of its walls.
She does not know how she will support her young daughter as she grows up.
“I always dreamt of going to school, to learn and to make something of myself,” she says. “I always knew I’d have children, just not this young.”
[BBC]
New Zealand’s Māori Queen Te Arikinui Kuini Nga Wai hono i te po has met King Charles III at Buckingham Palace.
The meeting with the British monarch was Te Arikinui’s first since she became queen in 2024, following the death of her father, Kiingi Tuheitia.
The visit marks a near 200-year relationship between the indigenous peoples of New Zealand and the crown, formalised in the Treaty of Waitangi, one of New Zealand’s founding documents.
A spokesperson for the queen says the two discussed the former king’s death in what was a “heartfelt” discussion, as well as the strengthening of their relationship.
Earlier this week, the Māori queen was also welcomed by Prince William to Windsor Castle.
In a post on Instagram, Prince William acknowledged the visit, saying, “it was a pleasure to meet with the Queen.”
A statement released after the meeting from the Kīngitanga said the Māori queen discussed a range of global topics with Prince William.
“Te Arikinui affirmed her belief in the power of indigenous knowledge and intergenerational stewardship to help solve the world’s environmental and social challenges.”
Te Arikinui was crowned in 2024 after the death of her father – becoming only the second Māori queen, the first being her grandmother, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu.
The Māori monarchy dates back to the 19th Century, when different Māori tribes decided to create a unifying figure similar to that of a European monarch in order to try to prevent the widespread loss of land to New Zealand’s British colonisers and to preserve Māori culture. It is a largely ceremonial and symbolic role.
[BBC]
Nearly three weeks after an Indian family of four were found dead in their home, investigators tell the BBC they are no closer to knowing what actually happened.
The Dokadia family – Abdullah, his wife Nasreen and their two daughters Ayesha and Zainab – were found dead at their home on 25 April in Mumbai’s Pydhonie area.
When the news broke, Indian media quickly dubbed the case “watermelon deaths”, after the last thing the family had eaten before their deaths.
The deaths received incessant media coverage in India, with lots of headlines advising caution while eating what is one of India’s most popular summer fruits.
Reports claimed the fruit was either adulterated or had been poisoned and that the couple and their teenaged daughters died because they consumed it late at night. This even led to a crash in watermelon prices in Mumbai’s fruit markets after demand plummeted.
There was also a lot of speculation over whether the deaths were accidental or intentional.
Last week, police in Mumbai said forensic tests had shown it was zinc phosphide – an extremely toxic chemical commonly used to kill rats – that killed the Dokadias. They said it was found in their organs and the remnants of the fruit.
But despite the revelation, the case is far from being solved and there are many unanswered questions.
On Wednesday, sources in the Mumbai police told the BBC that there is still no clarity on the motive or how the poison entered the watermelon.
“We are still collecting evidence and looking at all angles for motives,” a senior police officer said. “We have not ruled out homicide, accidental death or suicide.”
The Dokadias lived on the first floor of an old building in south Mumbai’s Pydhonie area.
In their first comments after the deaths, police said that night the family had hosted some relatives for dinner where they had eaten biriyani – a rice dish cooked with meat and fragrant spices.
The guests left at 22:30 and a few hours later the Dokadias ate watermelon. Soon after, they became ill.
“They all began suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea. They were taken to a nearby hospital and later transferred to JJ Hospital. However, all four individuals unfortunately died,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Pravin Mundhe told the media.
On hearing about their distress, neighbours, including Dr Zaid Qureshi who lives on the fourth floor of the building, rushed to help the family.
“I noticed that the youngest of the four individuals was experiencing difficulty breathing. I administered CPR. However, as her condition did not improve, she was taken to a nearby hospital. She passed away,” Dr Qureshi told BBC Marathi.
“The other three individuals were transferred from a local hospital to JJ Hospital,” he said, adding that they also died. Their post-mortem reports are still awaited.
Police said they seized all the food items, including rinds of the watermelon, to check for adulteration. As the last item the family had eaten before becoming ill, the attention was focused on the fruit.
Last week’s report from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Mumbai shifted the focus from watermelon to zinc phosphide.
The chemical was “detected in the deceased individuals’ viscera samples – specifically in the liver, kidney, and spleen – as well as in samples of stomach contents, bile and abdominal fat”, FSL director Dr Vijay Thakare told BBC Marathi. “Zinc phosphide was also detected in the watermelon sample.”
Mundhe, who is investigating the case, also confirmed that the chemical was “detected in the watermelon samples collected during the investigation, although it was not found in any other food samples sent for analysis”.
The building in which the Dokadias lived has a rodent problem, according to a report in the Indian Express newspaper. It says that many families use repellents, poison cakes and glue pads to get rid of these pests.
Some of the poison used to kill rats contains zinc phosphide which is “an extremely toxic chemical compound”, says Mumbai-based doctor Bhushan Rokade.
“Once ingested or upon contact with moisture, this chemical generates phosphine gas which inhibits the body’s cells from utilising oxygen and has severe repercussions on multiple organs.
“Symptoms include vomiting, a sensation of tightness in the chest, shortness of breath and going into shock. Even in very minute quantities, it can prove fatal,” Dr Rokade explained.
On Wednesday, a senior police official told the BBC they were still puzzled by how the rat poison ended up in the fruit.
“We have questioned 40-50 people, including relatives, friends, family, neighbours and Dokadia’s work colleagues. We have formed multiple teams that are working to solve the case.
“We will keep working until we find the answers,” he said.
[BBC]
Hundreds of people descended on a girls’ boarding school in the Indonesian village of Tlogosari, Central Java on 2 May, shouting chants and waving banners.
“Women are not sexual objects” read one. Another said, simply, “The Predator”.
The mob was there to accost and hurl insults at 58-year-old Kiai Ashari, the caretaker of the Ndholo Kusumo Islamic boarding school, as he was escorted away by police. He is suspected of sexually abusing dozens of female students – most of them orphans from poor families – over the course of several years.
The case has provoked outrage in Indonesia, and highlights a systemic issue of sexual abuse in Islamic boarding schools across the country.
While multiple witnesses who spoke out against Ashari have since withdrawn their testimonies, one victim has now filed an official complaint – and suggested that as many as 50 others fell prey to the caretaker’s sexual violence.
“The number of victims is 30 to 50 children based on the victim’s statement,” the victim’s attorney, Ali Yusron, told the BBC. “I handled one victim, but the legal process tells of many victims.
“One person reveals everything.”
Police said on 4 May that Ashari, who investigators named as a suspect on 28 April, had not yet been detained – but insisted that he would not flee. He proved them wrong later that day, fleeing Pati for the cities of Bogor, Jakarta and Solo before being caught by police on the night of 6 May at a mosque in Wonogiri, Central Java.
Pati police chief Jaka Wahyudi told reporters on 7 May that the victim was allegedly abused 10 times at different locations between February 2020 and January 2024.
The suspect is accused of entering the victim’s room under the pretext of asking for a massage, before telling the victim to remove their clothing and committing indecent acts including “touching, squeezing and kissing”.
After the incident occurred a tenth time the victim told their father, and a police report was filed.
This is not the first time Ashari has faced allegations of sexual abuse against his students. The caretaker, who also founded the Ndholo Kusumo school, is thought to have a history of abuse dating back to 2022.
“The victims are female students, mostly MTs students,” Ali says. “Three years in a row, they change at will.”
In 2024, Pati Police’s Women and Children’s Services Unit (PPA) received reports of alleged sexual crimes targeting minors in their teens.
Some of those charges were later dropped.
Pati police chief Jaka told the BBC that authorities investigated the 2024 case and interviewed witnesses, but ran into “obstacles along the way” – including four victims who withdrew their statements.
“The victim and the victim’s parents expressed their intention to resolve the matter amicably,” he explained.
“Therefore, several witnesses withdrew their testimony at the time, citing concerns about their children’s future.”
The case against Ashari resurfaced last month when, after two years, police finally named him as a suspect.
Authorities are still investigating the number of victims, Jaka said. But the allegations also point to a systemic trend of abuse in Indonesia’s Islamic boarding schools.
Ashari is said to have instilled misleading doctrines in his female students, several of whom said he claimed to be a saint with powers beyond human comprehension and, in other cases, the descendant of a prophet who should be honoured.
Imam Nahe’i, a member of the PBNU Anti-Sexual Violence Unit (SAKA) who is also a former commissioner of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, tells the BBC that cases of sexual violence in Islamic boarding schools usually follow a similar pattern.
Caretakers in these schools often teach things that “smell of shamanism or mysticism”, as opposed to “anything rational”, he says.
“Then there are also those who claim to be guardians,” he adds. “If you don’t obey them, you’ll go to hell.”
More explicitly, Imam Nahe’i says Islamic boarding schools often normalise, tolerate, and even allow actions such as touching, hugging and kissing students – which, he says, could lead to a tolerance of sexual violence.
He cites a case at a school in Sumenep, which “happened quite a long time ago, since 2017, until it was finally uncovered recently”.
“This means that all this time there has been some tolerance from those around them.”
Imam Nahe’i, who teaches at a large Islamic boarding school, says that when he asked he found his fellow teachers “didn’t understand what sexual violence was”.
“They said sexual violence is defined as penetration,” he explains. “If it hasn’t reached that point, it’s not considered sexual violence – it’s just a kind of sin.”
A broader issue relates to a lack of government supervision.
While Indonesia’s Ministry of Religious Affairs issued legislation in 2022 concerning the handling of sexual violence in educational contexts, Islamic boarding schools – which are typically founded by individuals rather than government institutions – are harder to regulate and often slip through the cracks.
This makes it difficult to report and protect against sexual violence in Islamic boarding schools. As Imam Nahe’i puts it, the legislation “cannot control” them.
“In order for Islamic boarding schools to have clear regulations and a task force, I think the Ministry of Religion really needs to push for this,” he says.
“In addition, supervision from the Ministry of Religion and the community regarding these newly emerging Islamic boarding schools must be stricter.”
The Ndholo Kusumo boarding school reportedly had a permit since 2021, and was home to at least 252 students.
In the wake of these latest allegations, the school has been closed down and students have been sent home.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs has revoked the school’s license permanently, and said that students’ educations would continue through online learning options or transfers to other institutions – especially for orphaned students.
The Director of Islamic Boarding Schools at the Ministry of Religion, Basnang Said, explained that the closure of the boarding school was to ensure that authorities could prioritise the investigation while maintaining order and protecting children.
New student admissions will be suspended until all issues are resolved and there is certainty that the childcare system, child protection, and institutional governance meet standards.
If Ndholo Kusumo is found to not meet those standards, it will be permanently deactivated.
The Ministry of Religion has further recommended that educators or caretakers at Islamic boarding schools who are suspected of sexually abusing students should be dismissed and kicked out of their residences on the Islamic boarding school grounds.
Islamic boarding schools across Indonesia are being asked to appoint new teaching staff with the capacity, moral integrity, and readiness to fully care for students 24 hours a day.
[BBC]
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