The Guardian has quoted an array of witnesses as saying that rival factions in Libya regularly resort to male rape in order to exert political pressure.
According to the Guardian, the relevant reports were first produced by a Le Monde journalist, who cited a spate of cases of Libyan men being sodomized by opponents with rockets and broom handles, among other things.
One of the victims, who went only by the name Ahmed, was quoted by The Guardian as saying that "nobody can escape it."
"They separate you to subjugate you. 'Subjugate the men', that's the expression that they use. So that you never hold your head up again. And they were filming everything with their phones," he said.
Another witness went further by claiming that male rape was in place in Libya under the country's former leader Muammar Gaddafi as an alleged "instrument of war." Gaddafi was toppled and then killed during a violent uprising in the fall of 2011.
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The witness alleged that "Gaddafi loyalists raped during the [2011 Libyan] revolution," and that "once they were defeated, they suffered the same violence."
The political crisis in Libya shows no sign of abating as the country has de-facto ceased to exist as a single state: the internationally recognized Government of National Accord operates in the capital Tripoli, while a vast part of the country is controlled by the elected parliament, backed by the Libyan National Army, headquartered in the city of Tobruk.There are also tribes and armed groups not abiding by either of them.
