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The American media has done a quasi-decent job of covering the loss of life in Algeria's long-running civil war, but one aspect of the conflict is conspicuously absent from American news reports -- the widespread gang rape and torture of civilians. European news reports provide detail on the numbers of rape victims while US reports only give the number of people killed. US reporting hardly hints at the horror visited upon Algerians. North Africans in the US rely on direct North African contacts to bring news of Algerian babies being put in the oven.

Algerian forces continue campaigns against Islamist groups (ArabicNews.com April 1998):

Armed gangs frequently kidnap women during attacks, and Algerian newspapers say many women raped by insurgents are killed if they become pregnant...On Monday, the Algerian press reported the kidnapping two days earlier of seven women by a gang of 20 men armed with rifles, hatchets and knives. The men swept into an eatery in the eastern port city of Annaba, taking away the women, two of whom were later found dead, their throats slit...On Sunday, the Algerian daily al-Khabar reported that some 1,600 rape cases by terrorists have been reported so far.

Algerian Violence Reaches New Heights (10/98 USCR Feature Story):

Women, particularly those leading western lifestyles, have disproportionately suffered, often becoming the victims of rape, kidnapping, and murder.

Links to external sites:

Algeria restores honor to rape victims (April 27, 1998 Associated Press article)

World Algerian Action Coalition