Syrians gang-rape teenage girl in Jordan refugee camp

Three Syrian men have gang-raped a 14-year-old girl in Jordan’s Zaatari refugee camp, a government official said on Tuesday.

“Police have arrested a Syrian man and are searching for two other Syrian men who gang-raped a 14-year-old Syrian girl in Zaatari on Monday,” Brigadier Waddah Hmud, head of the Syrian refugee department, told AFP.

“Further investigations are under way. The girl is currently at the Family Protection Department to examine her condition, physically and psychologically.”

Police confirmed the incident but refused to give details.

“This brings the total number of sexual assaults at the camp to 10 since the beginning of this year,” Hmud said.

Jordan is home to more than 500,000 refugees, including around 120,000 in Zaatari, which is located in the north of the country near the Syrian border.

The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said in August that Syrians who flee their war-torn country face recruitment as child soldiers, sexual violence and exploitation for labor.