Rape of Congolese Women Reaches Epic Proportions

Beyond the Veil| Rape of Congolese women has reached catastrophic proportions and will worsen as the UN withdraws 20,000 troops (some rape perpetrators, fyi).  Congolese president Joseph Kabila insists that Congolese troops — previously the major perpetrator of the rapes — can handle security in the country.

The situation for women in the Congo comes close to making life there the most unbearable place for women on earth.

In a new report published by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, the rate of civilian rapes of women has increased 17-fold. Presumably rapes were under-reported in the past, but the situation for women in the Congo has become horrific, where women are weapons of war.

We’ve followed the Congolese rape situation with numerous articles. This moment a new ‘more reading’ function is going into action on the website. We’ll check back to be sure that it’s working on this article, and will manually add more reading if necessary. via London Times