Congo (Kinshasa)

Too often the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is reduced to ‘the rape capital of the world,' a tragic title that has worn out its welcome. We see DRC as the world's capital of survivors, of courageous women whose bodies – and humanity – have come under attack, but who carry remarkable hope. And their hope deserves not only our attention, but our action.

The appointment of a presidential adviser on conflict-related sexual violence and child recruitment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) marks “a new dawn” in tackling these scourges, senior United Nations officials said today.

ASMA, 14, was raped at gunpoint. Two soldiers attacked her as she looked for firewood in the forest. "When I want to cry, one put a gun in my mouth while the other raped me. When the first had finished the other took his turn. I thought they were going to kill me."

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A U.N. Security Council committee blacklisted Ugandan Islamist group, the Allied Democratic Forces, on Monday for recruitment and use of child soldiers, killing, maiming and sexually abusing women and children, and attacks on U.N. peacekeepers.

Concern is mounting that British aid money may be funding police who are using rape as a tool of state-sanctioned torture against women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The claims emerged during last week's Ending sexual violence in conflict summit in London hosted by the UK foreign secretary, William Hague, and Angelina Jolie.

The Congolese soldiers march through the night, but not towards battle. In the dark, they are hunting for women who have fled their homes in Minova to hide in the bushes. The women know that if they are seen, they will be raped and maybe killed.

The army has been ordered to retreat to the town, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Its young soldiers, 2,000 of them, fire gunshots in the air.

I have met survivors of rape, ranging from babies a few months old to elderly women: in my country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, we suffer the daily reality of sexual violence in conflict. But in addition to the inhuman cruelty they have suffered, these people all have something else in common – they have had no justice.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo there have been more than two decades of armed conflict, sexual violence against women and widespread impunity for their abusers in the DRC. The Survivors Speak OUT! Network, a group of torture survivors, calls upon the United Nations to encourage the DRC government to respect the human rights conventions.

Four musical sisters are launching a campaign to raise awareness about violence against women. It's called “That Could Be Me” and asks Winnipeggers to imagine what it's like to live in fear.

“You take yourself into the position that those people are going through, and you feel their pain and the situation they're going through. So that is why we're doing this,” says Sylvie Bahati.

Living in the lush mountainous region in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Wivine Mwbawa would spend hours each day walking through the forest to fetch water for her family.

It was on a routine daily run a year-and-a-half-ago when she was ambushed and raped by three soldiers. She returned home to find that rebels had slaughtered her mother, father and two brothers.