Sexual Violence
According to a 2011 study in The American Journal of Public Health, approximately 1,150 women are raped every day in the DRC. That’s close to 400,000 a year. Sexual violence in the DRC is the worst in the world in terms of scale, brutality, and the culture of impunity according to a representative of the United Nations Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs. As many as 70 percent of women and girls in some eastern regions of DRC have been raped or sexually mutilated. Despite a 2006 law passed outlawing sexual violence, armed groups have been relentlessly committing rape and other sexual atrocities among civilians.
Rapes committed in the DRC have reached an extreme level of brutality. Girl children as young as 3 and women as old as 80 have reported being raped. Women are gang raped, tortured, have their genitals mutilated, and are killed. Many survivors are in need of extensive medical treatment to repair severe injuries to their reproductive anatomy. Women who are raped are at grave risk for becoming infected with HIV or other sexually transmitted infections. A culture of stigma surrounding rape results in many survivors being shunned by their husbands, families and communities. The issue of sexual violence in the DRC is a complex and multifaceted one. Further resources are provided below for your reference.
Rapes committed in the DRC have reached an extreme level of brutality. Girl children as young as 3 and women as old as 80 have reported being raped. Women are gang raped, tortured, have their genitals mutilated, and are killed. Many survivors are in need of extensive medical treatment to repair severe injuries to their reproductive anatomy. Women who are raped are at grave risk for becoming infected with HIV or other sexually transmitted infections. A culture of stigma surrounding rape results in many survivors being shunned by their husbands, families and communities. The issue of sexual violence in the DRC is a complex and multifaceted one. Further resources are provided below for your reference.
Further Reading on Sexual Violence
> Rape as a Weapon of War in Congo - The Economist, January 2011
> Now the World is Without Me - A Report by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative with support from Oxfam America, April 2010
> Rape in War: Motives of Militia in DRC - Special Report, U.S. Institute of Peace Special Report, June 2010.
> Now the World is Without Me - A Report by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative with support from Oxfam America, April 2010
> Rape in War: Motives of Militia in DRC - Special Report, U.S. Institute of Peace Special Report, June 2010.