COVER STORY DRCongo


The attacks are sadistic and the brutality with which they are carried out defy comprehension. Impunity has replaced law and order and it appears the international community has lost its mandate to stem the continuous and gruesome use of rape as a weapon of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Hence, New African Woman is asking, who will heal Congo’s women?


Who will heal Congo's women?


By Belinda Otas T


raditionally, March is the time of the year when women are celebrated in different parts of the world on International’s Women’s Day and Mother’s


Day. Amidst our celebrations, hundreds of thousands of women in Eastern Con- go are either being attacked or recovering from endemic sexual violence. To date, over 250,000 rapes have been reported during the protracted war, which started 13 years ago and has cost more than 4m lives. Rape victims are grotesquely mutilated


26 | NEW AFRICAN WOMAN | WINTER 2011


with guns, bayonets and risk becoming HIV positive, leaving them destroyed. Charité was raped in front of her fam-


ily who were then brutally murdered as she was forced to watch. Ten her eyes were destroyed so she could not recognise the attackers. Mary cannot remember the number of men who raped her and stuck corn cobs in her vagina, which led to in- fection. To date it has been impossible to repair her fistula due to her weak condition. Tese are just two of the many hor-


ror stories coming out of Heal Africa, an organisation based in Goma, DRC, and known for its work in combat- ing sexual violence in the region.


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