Congo (Kinshasa)

For tens of thousands of people who live in daily fear of sexual violence, the UN Security Council's emergency session to consider ways of preventing mass rape in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) must look like the diplomatic equivalent of offering band aids to a bleeding horse.

A grand march to protest against violence committed on women will be organized this coming October in Bukavu, the main town of South-Kivu province in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo).

Margot Wallstrom, U.N. special representative on sexual violence in conflict, deployed a senior staff member on Aug. 25 to help find out what happened in the Democratic Republic of Congo in July, when more than 179 women were reportedly attacked and gang raped.

The attacks took place in the U.N. peacekeeper-occupied North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo

The United Nations has urged action to prevent wanton sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo where some 150 women and baby boys were recently raped by rebel soldiers belonging to Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), reports said on Thursday.

After 12 years and more than five million dead, residents of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have learnt to survive with the constant din of war as the backdrop of their lives.

The mass rape of women in Congo (Report, 25 August) illustrates the difficulty the UN faces in trying to fulfil its mandate to prioritise the protection of civilians.

Civilians now account for 70% of casualties in wars and most are women and children. Sexual violence against women and girls has been part of conflicts from Rwanda and Bosnia, to Sierra Leone, Haiti, Congo and Afghanistan.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has expressed "deep concern" over reports of mass rape of women and children in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and vowed her country's help to bring to justice rebels accused in the "horrific" crime.

A report this week that Rwandan rebels looted villages in Congo and mass-raped more than 150 women and children in July has human rights activists asking why the UN peacekeeping mission can't prevent such atrocities.

The Rwandan rebels came down into the eastern Congolese town of Luvungi and occupied it for four days, systematically looting local homes and gang-raping more than 150 women and children.

The top U.N. envoy in Congo said Wednesday that two peacekeeping patrols were not informed by villagers that mass rapes were taking place and the United Nations is now working to improve communications and prevent any recurrence.

The United Nations is dispatching a senior staff member to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as senior officials express outrage at the recent rape and assault of more than 150 civilians by rebels based in the remote and troubled east of the country.