Tijanniya, 14, a sporty student from the town of Atar in the West African country of Mauritania, is eating breakfast with five other girls, ages 7 to 12, in a cramped sandstone hut deep in the Sahara Desert. Her stomach is already bloated from huge quantities of goats milk and oily couscous, but the meal is not over. The next course is a pint of pounded millet mixed with water. Tijanniya chokes down the thick gruel — she has no choice. An older woman dressed in pink robes threatens to beat her with a long cane if she refuses. Worse, if she throws up, the woman will make her eat her own vomit. The girls have been sent to this desolate spot near Atar to endure the practice of leblouh — intensive force-feeding. The aim is to feed them until their bodies blow up like balloons, says Aminetou Mint Elhacen, 50, the woman wielding the cane.
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 10:52:31 +0000
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