Congo (Kinshasa)

A Democratic Republic of Congo military court sentenced nine police officers for up to 20 years in jail for raping a dozen women at a farm, a prosecutor said on Monday.

The police officers were called to guard a farm in central Kasai-Occidental province in 2009 during a land dispute, and during the dispute they raped 12 women.

D.C. was bustling last week with a series of events commemorating the 10th anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security. It is hard these days to think of those words "women-peace-security" and not have your mind flash to the conflict in eastern Congo.

When 14-year-old Judith, not her real name, was raped in Goma, her father decided not to report the matter to the authorities. Instead, the family of the victim sat down with that of the rapist and hammered out a so-called friendly settlement.

Despite international attention to the problem of mass rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo, U.N. officials, analysts and activists say sexual violence and the use of rape as a weapon of war remain prevalent in the eastern part of the country.

Hundreds of women recently marched in the eastern city of Bukavu to chant against rape.

A man accused of helping direct a campaign of severe war crimes and crimes against humanity in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo was arrested in France, 7 years after fleeing there to evade justice for his actions.

Government soldiers in the DR Congo have attacked and raped women in villages where rebels already committed mass rapes this summer, a high-level UN official has said.

UN peacekeepers in the Walikale territory have reported that army troops are committing "rapes, killings and lootings," Margot Wallstrom, the special representative for sexual violence against women in conflict, told the UN security council on Thursday.

I've been working in the development field for a long time, and I've increasingly been frustrated by the way that when gender was talked about, it was always in terms of women. We talked about engaging men in reducing violence against women, rather than engaging them with their own issues. The underlying assumption is that men are still in positions of power and therefore they can't ever be vulnerable.

The head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) cautioned today that military operations alone in the restive eastern region cannot ensure long-term security in the area, stressing the need to build the capacity of the country's military, justice system and the police force.

Hundreds of women who were raped by rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) nearly three months ago now reportedly face the same abuse from Government troops, a senior United Nations official warned today.

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.