DR Congo government troops are raping and killing women in remote villages where hundreds were the victims of mass rapes by militias in July and August, Margot Wallstrom, UN special envoy on sexual violence against women in conflict, said Thursday.

The UN Security Council was told that the best way to stop rapes in the Congo was to arrest and sanction commanders who permitted it, exclude perpetrators from any future amnesty and do something about the root of the violence -- the looting of minerals.

More than 15,000 rapes were committed last year in a strife-torn region of Democratic Republic of Congo where peacekeepers cannot guarantee civilian security, a top UN official said Friday.

With accusations now being made against DR Congo government troops of new cases of raping and killing in the east of the country, the head of the UN force, Roger Meece, said "the scale of the problem is enormous."

The Democratic Republic of Congo's first lady has led thousands of women on a march against sexual violence.

Olive Lembe Kabila headed the rally in the town of Bukavu in the east of the country, where Congolese and foreign armed groups have operated for years.

Last week, the UN said government troops were raping and killing women in the same villages where hundreds were raped by rebels in July and August.

During a press conference held in Kinshasa on Saturday, Defence Minister Charles Mwando Nsimba expressed outrage at the remarks made by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Margot Wallström, before the UN Security Council on Thursday.

A Women's organization in Cote d'Ivoire, the International Forum of Women for Development and Peace (FIFEM), on Tuesday launched a nation-wide campaign, urging Ivorian women to vote massively in Sunday's presidential polls, PANA reported from here.

The campaign train criss-crossed Abidjan, the capital, and will go through other major cities in the country.

THE number of women who die in childbirth in the country has doubled in the past decade because of the poor state of the health delivery system, a senior government official has said.

The Minister of Health and Child Welfare Henry Madzorera said maternal mortality ratio (MMR) has doubled in the last decade from 283 deaths in 1994 to 725 last year.

Sexual violence perpetrated against women and children extends beyond Africa as a "cheap" weapon of war, a U.N. special envoy on sexual violence said.

The United Nations says that while conflicts are changing, civilians continue to suffer the most during wars. Women and children are often the greatest victims as militants turn to sexual violence as a way to wield power over vulnerable communities.

Liberia's Vice President Joseph N. Boakai, Sr., hailed Liberian women for the role they played in ending the country's 14 years conflict. He observed that notwithstanding the injustices and violations Liberian women suffered during the country's civil war, they emerged as key players in bringing an end to conflict in Liberia.

THE First Lady and Karamoja affairs state minister, Janet Museveni, has said although Ugandan women are proud of what the Movement Government has done to empower them, they are still vulnerable and not fully empowered yet.