Congo - "The Rape Capital of the World"

In many ways, my most difficult memory is talking to women survivors of rape in eastern Congo a few years ago.  All of us huddled together in a small, dilapidated building outside of Kasongo, the women dressed in their Sunday best.  Each woman sat quietly, spoke quietly, which made their stories even more horrific.

And then suddenly one woman started to cry, describing how after she was raped her husband accused her of being unclean, and kicked her out of her house.  She cried as she said that she hadn't seen her children since.

I still remember staring down at my hands, wishing, desperately wishing I could make everything alright, and knowing I never could.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has called eastern Congo the "rape capital of the world".  This legacy extends back to the mid-1990s, yet recent fighting threatens to make the problem even worse.

According to statistics gathered by CARE, women reported over 3,500 cases of sexual violence in North Kivu Province alone between January and September of this year.

These numbers, however, barely convey the brutal reality. According to Elisabeth Roesch, the Gender and Advocacy Advisor for CARE in the Congo:

"We know rape is typically under-reported, and feel that this number doesn’t even come close to reflecting the actual number of cases – the actual number is unimaginable. With this recent fighting, we won’t know the full extent right away, because there is such stigma around sexual violence. Women don’t come forward for fear of rejection, reprisal, and because of continued insecurity. They need safety, medical care, support and encouragement, and this is a crucial gap in DR Congo today.”

As Roesch describes: "It has been said that it’s more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier in the DRC right now – that couldn’t be more true."

Continued after the jump:

A recent article by Rob Crilly of the Times provides a glimpse of what it's like on the ground:

"The first soldiers kicked down the door to her house, killed her younger brother, his wife and son.

Then, as Ngiraganga fled barefoot towards safety, she came across the second wave of soldiers.

They asked her for money and when she explained that she had nothing to give they took her clothes, stripping the 42-year-old to her underwear.

The third group of soldiers took all she had left. 'They beat me and raped me,' Ngiraganga said quietly in Swahili, sitting in the gloomy office of a women’s shelter. 'They weren’t drunk, just dirty from the fighting.'"

As mentioned above, however, the problem of rape started long before the recent fighting - according to a CARE report from 2007:

"The presence of sexual violence in DRC is shocking by any measure. A recent study in one area where CARE works found that 70 per cent of survivors of sexual violence know other women who have undergone similar experiences. In one town, a health worker estimated that between 70 and 80 per cent of the female population had experienced some form of sexual violence. One health worker said that women who experience rape or sexual violence are punished three times: once by the violence itself, once by their communities if they dare to complain, and a third time when they see the culprits still walking the streets."

The Enough Project lists ten reasons why eastern Congo is the most dangerous place in the world for women, including predatory security forces, lawless militia, and a "culture of impunity".

That said, there are some hopeful signs.  A New York Times article last month described how civil society groups - working with the Congolese Government, and supported by international organizations and donors - are beginning to break the silence and actually prosecute rapists: "Of course, countless men still get away with assaulting women. But more and more are getting caught, prosecuted and put behind bars."

If you would like to be involved, the Enough Project has just launched the RAISE Hope for Congo campaign, to protect and empower Congolese women and girls facing the scourge of rape.  One way to take action is to sign the RAISE Hope petition to the President.

To learn more about gender-based violence (GBV), a bibliography - including reports, toolkits, guidelines, and other resources - is available here.

[Photo of woman fleeing the violence in eastern Congo accessed at z.about.com]