03/07/2007

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Since 1996, the armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has resulted in sexual violence against women and children. Rape is used as a weapon of war to torture, humiliate, punish and break families apart in cruel and inhumane ways. Rape has become endemic in the eastern DRC leaving its thousands of survivors, mostly women, to deal with the devastating consequences, including genital and physical injuries, vaginal fistulae, unwelcome pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS, and emotional trauma.

Despite media attention on the abuses of Congolese women by UN peacekeepers, the vast majority of perpetrators are members of the Congolese army or militia forces. Too little is happening to address the impunity enjoyed by perpetrators, making prevention often an empty word.

Additionally, at least 30,000 boys and girls are estimated to be serving as child soldiers in the DRC. These children are forced to fight on the frontlines and participate in serious human rights abuses against civilians. In addition, the children themselves experience brutal treatment at the hands of the armed forces. Almost all girls and some of the boys experience sexual abuse by their commanders or other soldiers. According to Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, “The girl victims of rape or other forms of sexual violence in DRC are believed to number in the hundreds of thousands.”

The presence of girls in armed groups has been ignored and denied by government, military and community leaders not only in the DRC but around the world for a considerable period of time.

For more information on RI’s efforts to help these women or to learn more about the problem of rape in the DRC, check out the following links.

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