Rape Capital Of The World 
Published on September 6, 2010 by TheNEWS · No Comments
The epidemic of rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the most horrific and persistent abuse of women anywhere in the world.
Congo Democratic Republic, formerly Zaire, is seen as the rape capital of the world. This is because, the war-torn central African nation has a shocking reputation for sexual violence. More than 9,000 women were raped during fighting in 2009, the United Nations, UN, says.
•Rape victims in Congo..
The number of rapes carried out by civilians in eastern Congo has increased by 17-fold in the last few years, according to a study that says sexual assaults long perpetrated by armed groups are spreading across the population. The study, commissioned by the British aid group Oxfam, was carried out by experts from Harvard University and examined more than 4,000 cases from 2004 to 2008 at the Panzi Hospital in the eastern Congo city of Bukavu.
Mass rape began in the mineral-rich country with the civil war in 1996. The conflict quickly sucked in all of Congo’s neighbours, and killed an estimated five million people. The aftermath of the war caused a lot of unrest which made rape most prevalent. At a Catholic parish office, the cramped and crowded ledger pages where they list rape victims show that at least half of the names appear more than once: women who have been victims of sexual enslavement or public gang-rape by rebel groups or the Congolese Army.
Research shows that the youngest victim on the list is six while the oldest is 74 and a total of 400 cases are recorded everyday. Most of the victims require surgery due to bleeding or wounds inflicted through torture by their attackers. Armed groups, including the army and Congolese and Rwandan militias, have raped tens of thousands of women in the war-ravaged nation, and are still feared by the population. But recent research shows that 38 per cent of rapes are committed by civilians nowadays.
“This study confirms what has only been reported anecdotally until now: Sexual violence has become more normal in civilian life,” said Susan Bartels, chief researcher from the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. “The scale of rape over Congo’s years of war has made this crime seem more acceptable.”
“Rape of this scale and brutality is scandalous,” said Krista Riddley, who directs humanitarian policy for Oxfam. “This is a wake-up call at a time when plans are being discussed for U.N. peacekeepers to leave the country. The situation is not secure if a woman can’t even sleep safely in her own bed at night.” The report said few places were safe for victims. About 56 per cent of sexual assaults surveyed were carried out by armed men in what should have been the safety of home — in the presence of the victim’s families, including their children. Around 16 per cent were reported in fields, and 15 per cent in forests.
Incidents of sexual slavery also were reported by 12 per cent of women surveyed, with some women being held captive for years. The report said the number of rapes spiked during military activities, as the government and its Rwandan military allies carried out operations against Rwandan militia groups still operating on Congolese soil.
More than than half of the assaults took place in the victims’ homes, the report said, and an increasing number of attacks were being carried out by civilians.
Two weeks ago, the United Nations began investigating claims that rebel fighters raped more than 150 women and baby boys in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The attacks happened over four days within miles of a UN base, a US aid worker and a Congolese doctor said.UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon is sending two top aides to the country to help investigate the alleged assaults in the country’s volatile eastern region. Mr Ban also urged the Congolese government to investigate the attacks. Aid workers and UN representatives knew that rebels had occupied Luvungi town and surrounding villages in eastern DR Congo the day after the attack began on 30 July, the International Medical Corps, IMC, said last Tuesday. They could not get into the town until the rebels left, said the IMC’s Will Cragin.
According to reports, the rebels gang-raped nearly 200 women and some baby boys over four days before leaving. The region lies approximately 10 miles (16km) from a UN peacekeepers’ base. “The secretary-general is outraged by the rape and assault. This is another grave example of both the level of sexual violence and the insecurity that continue to plague Congo,” he told the Associated Press.
Meanwhile, UN peacekeepers have been accused by some of the victims. UN has a large baseof peacekeeping mission in Kaniola, Congo – known by its French acronym MONUC – the largest in the world with 17,000 peacekeepers. But none of them respond to the persistent rape activity. In fact, the UN mission in Congo has a Chapter 7 mandate from the Security Council that authorises it to use any means necessary to protect civilians.
US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has vowed to make the prevention of sexual violence a priority in Congo, where the United States pays about a quarter of the cost of U.N. peacekeeping efforts.
—Seun Bisuga with Agency Reports
Tags: Democratic Republic of Congo, rape