By Beatrice Jeschek

© Walter Astrada/AFP/Getty Images

The truth spreads after three weeks: Members of two armed groups raped at least 150 women in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the UN confirms.

The figures vary to as much as 179 women who were raped by between two and six men. Their children and husbands were forced to watch. Medical and psychological help is much needed and provided, reported the humanitarian group of the International Medical Corps (IMC).

The insurgents are said to belong to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a group of ethnic Hutu fighters linked to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Together with the local militia known as the Mai-Mai Cheka they blocked the main road that connected the village of Bunangiri with the world.

Some 30 kilometers away was the UN military mission (MONUSCO), unaware of the circumstances.
A bloody war has raged in Congo for many years. Rebels of diverse groups fight against the government, militias plunder villages, soldiers carry out acts of vengeance and bandits assault refugees. As always, women and children suffer the most. From a distant and analytical point of view, the incident of gang rape comes across as not at all surprising. Exactly that is so cruel about it.

It is an asymmetric war in the DRC, which deforms the meaning of democracy to the extreme. Lightly armed soldiers fight against each other, so the area of destruction moves.

Many civilians are on the run, constantly. Getting to the cities is the light of hope to them. Consequentially, hospitals break under the weight of people.

The dark figure of unreported rape cases is supposed to be very high.

According to the UN population fund, more than 8000 women were raped in the provinces of North Kivu (where the village of Bunangiri is situated) and South Kivu. And this is just the number for last year.

It is part of the military strategy to demonstrate power. Women lose their babies by this violent act of humiliation; not even underage girls are safe (see video below). The husbands do not know any other way as to cast their beloved out. A scar from rape is for lifetime in the DRC.

When the UN peacekeepers are withdrawn as planned – in recent months already 1700 soldiers to meet an agreement with the government in Congo to end the mission – the fight against sexual abuse in the DRC will get even harder to win, argues Margot Wallstrom, the U.N. special representative on sexual violence in conflict.

The Rape of Kivu: A Report by “En France 24” from December 2007 on the long-lasting problem of rape in Kivu (the region where the recent rapes happened):


This article was first published 25/08/2010 on maltastar.com.