Congo's Warring Factions Leave a Trail of Rape

No one knows how many have been raped during Congo's four-year war. It is clear that especially in this part of the country, South Kivu Province, sexual attacks have become endemic and have gone virtually unpunished, as soldiers from one armed group after another have seized villages, pillaged homes, taken women and girls at the point of a gun or knife. Neither 4-year-old girls nor 80-year-old grandmothers have been spared. Judging by the new cases before the mobile medical clinic, many have been raped by several men.

For women in rural eastern Congo, rape is an occupational hazard. Here women work the fields. They trek for miles to fetch water and firewood. They walk to and from market, usually on long empty stretches of country road or through dark forests. Doctors, social workers and investigators say all armed groups in the region are guilty of the crimes, from Rwandan factions to Mai-Mai militias supported by Congo's government to the Hutu fighters who work alongside them.

"It is just such an effective tool to harass, intimidate, terrorize the population, to keep people on the move," said Karin Wachter with the Bukavu-based office of the International Rescue Committee, an American aid agency. "It is also the issue of impunity. There are no consequences for their actions."