The Underlining Military Ideology Associated with Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV)

Rape and other forms of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) continue to persist across the African continent.
The military ideology that offers to rationalize the rise of SGBV during times of conflict is grounded in the perceived effectiveness of rape as a weapon to achieve military victory.
Having observed its effectiveness to drive fear in the hearts of the civilian populations, heads of warring factions have been noted to command the forces under their control to pillage and violently rape women and children.
This theory has been supported by most experts who have investigated the high levels of rape incidents reported on the African continent. It is their consensus that indeed SGBV has become a highly efficient military tactic used to impart fear and displace communities.
Another school of thought that falls within the military framework ascribes to the notion that since the military forces are so poorly trained in sub-Saharan Africa, they do not recognize the United Nations outlined rules of engagement and therefore perpetuate such monstrosities in the search for territorial acquisition and dominance..
It is theorized that since these rebels and government soldiers are inadequately trained to engage in combat, they use every possible means to gain the smallest military victory regardless of what is sanctioned by the world governing bodies.
In addition, due to the poor chain in command within these paramilitary organizations some of these soldiers act independently and perpetuate these acts without the directive of their superior commanders.
Though the level of training of these fighters are sub-par at best, the increasing violent nature of SGBV events and their frequent occurrences are too systemic to be categorized as random acts of violence or disobedience by rouge soldiers.
The observed increase in the orchestration of SGBV in sub-Saharan Africa is greatly correlated to both its perceived ability to strike fear in communities and confer the upper hand during conflicts.
As the use of rape as weapon and the victimization of women continue to rise on the African continent, there has be both a governmental and a grassroots approach to help bring these vile acts to an end.
#bringbackourgirls