Lisa Shannon has run 30 miles straight, alone, on a steep and forested Portland trail. But on this particular rainy February day, she is running just a mile, barefoot, through the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Dubbed the "rape capital" of the world by Margot Walhstrom, UN Special Representative on Ending Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones, Eastern DRC is seen as the epicenter of sexual violence. A study, jointly put together by Oxfam, the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, and Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, looks at more than 4,000 rape cases and provides exact data on when and where rapes occur and who the victims and perpetrators are.
In a country known as the most dangerous in the world to be female, the most unusual aspect of the story of convicted rapist Eleka Amungu is that he is behind bars.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today spoke out against the large number of rapes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), voicing concern at the impunity with which the attacks are being carried out.
Congolese laws against sexual violence are not being implemented and a withdrawal of United Nations peacekeepers from the country would make the struggle against endemic rape "a lot more difficult," the U.N. said.
Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean arrived in Congo under heavy security Sunday amid indications Canada could take a leading role in the world's deadliest conflict since the Second World War.
Soldiers with assault rifles guarded a multitude of checkpoints for kilometres around the airport, in a country where armed rebels launched a deadly attack to temporarily overtake another airport just days ago.
The fight against sexual violence and the reign of impunity are a growing concern for the United Nations.