Tracking - Rape in Congo

by Michael Bear

category: Humanitarian Relief

Published December 28, 2008 @ 02:51PM PT

[Rape as a weapon of war in DR Congo - Reporting from Michael Kavanagh of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting]

One of the most horrific aspects of the renewed conflict in Congo has been the increased numbers of rape - this, in a country which had already earned the name "the rape capital of the world".  In a response to Brooks' recent post - Stopping Sexual Violence in Congo: Some Realism with Our Rhetoric - one person commented:

"One of the things that we could do more of in DRC is respond to the needs of the raped women. Prevention will take a long time and you are right, there is a huge culture shift that is needed but the horrific stories of the graphic damage being done to women's bodies needs addressing now. More agencies need to look into health programming, psycho-social care, and helping women who have been abandoned by their families."

I couldn't agree more - the video above, by Michael Kavanagh of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, looks at this issue, including the story of a woman whose husband abandoned her after she had been raped.

At the same time, there are other ways in which aid agencies are trying to help.  Emily Meehan works for the International Rescue Committee, and her blog provides a fascinating glimpse of what it's like to work in the camps in Congo.  This is from her recent post, Dignity amid devastation:

"When the International Rescue Committee’s sexual violence response team recently assessed the needs of women living in the Kibati camp for displaced people, on the edge of Goma, they heard devastating accounts of rape. Sexual violence is a weapon of war in eastern Congo and a daily reality of displaced life – armed men are raping women and so are strangers who live in and around the camp.

My colleagues started their work in Kibati by simply asking women about their needs and problems. They build trust. They are careful and discreet. And when women disclose stories of rape, they are referred to psychosocial and medical services. They are accompanied and supported through the process.

In the course of the Kibati assessment, women told my colleagues of other problems as well. They have no underwear, no sanitary materials to use during menstruation.  And so we respond to this, too. Sarah Spencer, the IRC’s coordinator of programs that address sexual violence, kicks her team into high gear to provide those women with the most basic of needs.

'Giving women sanitary materials helps restore dignity despite the devastating situation around them, and helps to promote basic hygiene and health,” Sarah says. “Every woman of reproductive age needs this.'"

For more information about rape in Congo, see these previous posts.  Joanna Tomkinson has also written an excellent article on this for Reuters AlertNet - Ending rape during wartime.

Finally, there are recent reports that the tenuous ceasefire in eastern Congo might be breaking down. Earlier this fall, rebel forces under Laurent Nkunda overran the Congolese Army and advanced to the edge of Goma, the largest city in North Kivu province, at which point Nkunda declared a ceasefire.

Overall, the conflict caused over 250,000 civilians to flee their homes.

Nkunda is now saying that Government troops are harassing this forces, and is threatening to re-occupy positions he vacated in late November and early December.

For its part, the UN reports that rebel troops have been massing along key roads. To read the most recent UN OCHA Humanitarian Situation Update (as of December 23rd), see here.

And, because when it rains it pours, there's also a confirmed Ebola outbreak in southern Congo.