Monrovia, March 13 -- Dozens of young Liberians marched through the streets of the capital to the Women's Peace Hub here on Thursday for an anti-rape protest. They had planned to march on the nation's Capitol building but government officials said they did not properly request a permit to do that.

But they marched anyway, handing a petition to the gender ministry, demanding answers for why five years after rape was declared a national emergency, the numbers of cases keeps rising."The current trajectory of sexual violence in Liberia demands urgent and coordinated national action," said Titus Pakalah, a protest leader, as he read the End Rape Campaign's position statement. "Silence, delayed justice, and weak enforcement mechanisms have cr...