Rape in Congo on the increase

From a story on allAfrica.com, 01.03.11.

Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) is reporting that more than 200 women, children and men have been treated for rape in the past month in the Fizi region of South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Large-scale attacks on civilians, in which rape is used as a weapon of war, are a feature of the conflict in eastern DRC.

The survivors told MSF that they had been taken hostage, stripped, tied up and then beaten and raped. All their belongings had been stolen.

According to witnesses, the attackers were armed men who seemed to be part of the FDLR, a group founded by perpetrators of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. They have been hiding out in eastern DRC ever since.

‘Mass rapes and violent attacks are happening with alarming regularity in this particular part of the Fizi region,’ said Annemarie Loof, head of misson in South Kivu for MSF.

‘We are extremely concerned about the fate of civilians who are being targeted amid the increasing violence and insecurity in this part of eastern DRC.’