Why Women Fight in the World’ Most ‘Forgotten’ Crisis

Melvia wants to make something very clear: She joined the rebels to kill—not to boil manioc or perform other chores usually dumped on women. She wanted to fight back against the men who attacked her village in the Central African Republic, torched her home and killed her grandmother. “I didn’t join the group to cook,” she says. “I wanted to do the hard work.”

Melvia was one of several women in her militia’s battalion and one of an unknown number bearing arms in the country’s long-running conflict. There are 14 armed groups fighting for control of territory and resources in a crisis that the U.N. has said shows the warning signs of genocide. The vast majority of rebels are men, but many women like Melvia have taken up arms on all sides of this struggle. Their existence is often unknown to, denied or questioned by officials and aid workers, who assume rebel