Tracking - Rape in Congo

[Congo: Life in the Camps - Produced by World Vision]

Following up on Thursday's post about rape in the Congo - the AP reported yesterday about Congolese soldiers who tried to rape a woman at the Kibati displaced person camp, killing another woman in the process.  According to a witness:

"When the soldiers got here, they wanted to rape a woman. She screamed a lot and the people woke up to help her. They (soldiers) began to shoot in the air to try to spread the crowd. They were also looting."

As another woman at Kibati recently described:

"There are two women living in the shelter next to me who were taken as they looked for bananas in the fields. They are not the only ones. Many women are being attacked here by the government soldiers. The soldiers also steal food we have been given by aid workers."

Joseph Ciza, who helps run the HEAL Africa hospital in Goma explains that these are not isolated incidents:

"Whenever there is fighting, there are attacks on women. Those attacks reduce when the armies are actually in battle, but once that stops and they settle into their new positions, the rapes will start. It is a common pattern."

The scope of the problem beggars imagination - according to one aid worker with Oxfam:

"We have heard reports from every single woman in some villages that they have suffered some kind of sexual abuse in the last five years. It is as if rape has become ingrained into the culture of these armed groups, and it is very difficult to turn that tide without overall security reform in this country."

For more information about the overall humanitarian situation, see below:

There have long been concerns about the camp at Kibati, which is located close to the front lines between the Congolese Army and rebels under Laurent Nkunda.  There are approximately 67,000 IDPs - internally displaced persons - around Kibati.

The UN has plans to relocate the camp to a safer location, though the preparations are taking time as the new site "lies on a hardened lava field".

Further north, 10,000 families recently fled from a camp near Kiwanja after rumors that the camp might be attacked by Mai-Mai militia.

There are also continuing fears of a cholera epidemic among the displaced population.  As a field coordinator with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) explained: "If you don't do anything, 30 to 50 percent of those who have cholera die."

That said, aid workers are still struggling to reach those most in need.  Scattered attacks against humanitarian agencies continue, with two humanitarian vehicles hijacked by militias since Wednesday.

In addition, the Congolese Army ransacked an ICRC compound in Kirumba on Monday, and then looted a Therapeutic Feeding Center - used to treat malnourished children - in Kaina on Wednesday.

Congolese civil society groups recently released a statement, describing UN peacekeepers as "powerless" and calling for European troops to restore order.  According to the groups:

"We don't know which saint to pray to; we are condemned to death by all this violence and displacement. We have been abandoned."

Finally, in more positive news - on Thursday, the UN Security Council voted unanimously to provide an additional 3,000 peacekeepers to the Congo, bringing the total number of UN peacekeepers in the country to around 20,000.  As he promised earlier this week, Nkunda also withdrew his rebel forces on two fronts, to faciliate humantiarian access.

Overall, fighting in eastern Congo has caused over 250,000 civilians to flee their homes since August, including 100,000 people since late October.  For an excellent overview of what's happening in eastern Congo, see this recent summary by Amnesty International.

For the most recent OCHA Humanitarian Situation Update (November 21st), see here.