In the lawless eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, press freedom means having a voice to speak out against horrific violence against women and children. This World Press Freedom Day, the International Center for Journalists has teamed up with Vital Voices to help Congolese radio reporter Chouchou Namegabe, ICFJ's 2009 Knight International Award Winner and Vital Voices' 2009 Fern Holland Award recipient.
Congolese tell the stories of their lives, breaking the silence and bringing the attention of the world to the remote villages of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Submit your own media on rape as a weapon of war to the video call-outs here.
Since war broke out in 1998, more than five million people have been killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo and tens of thousands of women and girls have been raped and tortured. A cease-fire was declared in 2002, but foreign militias have continued to terrorize the Congolese population.
"I follow with my eyes men who are passing by. In case it is one of them, I want them to see that I am still alive, that they did not kill me, neither body nor soul, nor will they ever be able to do it."
Zainab Salbi recounted the story of Safeta, a Bosnian woman who was held captive and repeatedly raped by Serbian militants after her husband was taken to a concentration camp in 1990.
Afghan women call for International support for nine female members of the Afghan High Peace Council, created following the Peace Jirga in June 2010, which provides the framework for negotiations with the Taliban, including:
What could be done with the approximate $140 Million spent on military expenditures every year in the Democratic Republic of the Congo….
The cost of a forensic rape exam is $800: you could buy 175,000 rape kits. The evidence gathered with these rape kits, if properly taken care of, could lead to an end of impunity in the DRC.
The plan to resolve the conflict in the Kivu by emphasising a military solution is failing. Two years after the rapprochement between Congolese President Joseph Kabila and his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, government soldiers are still battling militias for control of land and mines. Neither side has the strength to win, but both have the resources to prolong the fighting indefinitely.
In August, shocking reports emerged that armed groups had systematically attacked villages in the Walikale territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), raping more than 300 women, girls, men and boys. Government security forces and United Nations peacekeepers stationed nearby failed to protect them. Survivors were left traumatized, sexually assaulted, in pain, without clothes or belongings.
I recently made my way through the same Central African countryside as I traveled through two years ago with Population Services International (PSI), the global health organization for which I serve on the board of directors. This time, I was in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with the Center for American Progress' to investigate mineral mining in conflict areas and advocate for the ban of their use.
Last year the African Union declared this decade, 2010-2020 as the African Women's Decade.
Between July 30th and August 4th nearly 500 women were raped in and around the village of Luvungi in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in a campaign of ongoing terror waged by armed groups who use rape as a weapon of war. To date, armed groups and soldiers from the Congolese armed forces have raped over 200,000 women.
