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Child rape epidemic in Zimbabwe
Tens of thousands of children have been sexually abused in Zimbabwe in a growing epidemic that has shocked human rights activists.
A single clinic in the capital, Harare, says it has treated nearly 30,000 girls and boys who were abused in the past four years ‑ an average of 20 per day. Experts believe that the country's economic collapse under Robert Mugabe has led to widespread family breakdown and left many children vulnerable.
Dr. Robert-Grey Choto, a pediatrician and co-founder of the Family Support Trust Clinic, said the increase was alarming. "In the last four years we have seen over 29,000 cases, and in the last 10 years we have more than 70,000 at this clinic alone," he told the BBC's Network Africa program. "It's a tip of the iceberg ‑ the problem is enormous. We need drugs and any assistance we can get."
A 12-year-old patient at the clinic, part of the main referral hospital in Harare, told the BBC he had been gang-raped in a township last month. "Four men waylaid me on my way from school," he said. "I was taken to a shop where they showed me pornographic material."
The boy said he was then drugged and sodomized for more than a week. His father added: "This is unbearable. All I want is justice for now."