“Congo’s Rape Epidemic Worsens During U.S.-Backed Military Operation”

Washington Post has a deeply disturbing article about the rape epidemic in the Congo. Rape was widely used as a tool by rebel forces during the Congo-Rawandan conflict, but now it is the Congolese soldiers who are raping women.

"The number of soldiers roaming these eastern hills has almost tripled to 60,000, and rapes have doubled or tripled in the areas they are deployed. Aid groups said the number of rapes so far this year is probably in the thousands.

Though Congolese President Joseph Kabila recently declared a policy of "zero tolerance" for sexual violence, fewer than a dozen soldiers have been convicted of rape this year. In May, the U.N. Security Council handed Kabila a list of five senior army officials, including a general, accused of rape, but so far none have been prosecuted."

The content of the article is heart-wrenching, but it’s well written, and I highly recommend reading it if you can.  Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will be in Congo today and "has vowed to make sexual violence a priority in Congo, where the United States pays about a quarter of the cost of U.N. peacekeeping efforts."