In Morocco-occupied Western Sahara, dozens of masked Moroccan agents broke into the home of renowned Sahrawi human rights activist Sultana Khaya, who has been under house arrest for the past six months, and sexually assaulted her and her sister Ouarra. Sultana and Ouarra say the agents entered before dawn when the family was sleeping, assaulted their brother, doused the home with foul-smelling liquid and tied them up.

Ouarra Khaya: “They inserted sticks inside our buttocks. In our buttocks exactly. It is rape.”

Sultana Khaya: “What has happened to us is completely different. Look, my eye is injured. I got several punches. I felt smothered. My shoulder has been hurting. And they have spared no effort. … As I was saying to the Moroccan occupiers, my battle will never stop. Even if they tear down the wall, turn the house into mud, let them do it. Just let them do it.”

Amnesty International has called on Morocco to “lift the arbitrary house arrest” against Sultana Khaya and her family. Western Sahara has been under Moroccan military occupation since Spain, the former colonial power, pulled out in 1975. Last November, Morocco violated the 29-year ceasefire with the Polisario Front, and war returned to the territory, followed by a Moroccan crackdown against the Sahrawi indigenous population. Click here to see our documentary, “Four Days in Western Sahara: Africa’s Last Colony.”