Congo (Kinshasa)

However, it has delayed a decision on the full withdrawal of its 20,500-strong force, as sought by Congolese President Joseph Kabila, to next year.

The 15-member body unanimously adopted a resolution to withdraw the troops "where the security situation permits".

It also decided to retain a UN presence in DR Congo until 30 June 2011.

Obama earlier this week signed the most widely co-sponsored Africa-specific law in U.S. history. Supporters hope it will defend women in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Sudan from further atrocities.

The eastern DRC has become synonymous with war and rape. In recent years, various rebel groups have attacked and looted villages, driving civilians into the bush to escape. Attempts by government forces and U.N. troops to defeat them have often made matters worse for civilians, as militias launch retaliatory strikes against villagers. But many aid groups working in the region have blamed all warring parties for attacks on civilians.

President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo would like to see the U.N. start drawing out its peacekeeping forces in June and be completely gone by August 2011.

Margot Wallstrom, the secretary general's special representative for sexual violence in conflict, thinks otherwise, and told the U.N. Security Council so before last week's visit by council members and other diplomats to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Fresh from her visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which she described as the “rape capital of the world,” a senior United Nations official today urged the Security Council to make the prevention of sexual violence a top priority, and stressed the need to end impunity for the scourge.

Women's rights organizations welcome UNSC support on the implementation of a United Nations Resolution which will take action on indicators which assess and address the impact of war upon women and which stress the need to include women in the peace-building process and the resolution of conflicts and crises.

MICHEL MARTIN, host:

I'm Michel Martin, and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is "the rape capital of the world", a senior UN official has said.

Margot Wallstrom, the UN's special representative on sexual violence in conflict, urged the Security Council to punish the perpetrators in DR Congo.

Rape remained a dominant feature of the ongoing conflict in eastern DR Congo, with impunity being the rule rather than the exception, she said.

As his plane cut through the clouds above eastern Congo on Friday, John Holmes, the United Nations' top humanitarian official, looked down pensively at the miles and miles of thick forest covering one of the most chronically afflicted parts of Africa, if not the world.

“It's hard not to despair about Congo,” he said.

The original inhabitants of the equatorial forests of Africa's Great Lakes region – the Batwa Indigenous community - are decrying the high rate of violence against women, says a new report.