In Congo, Sexual Assault Spreads From Army To Civilians
LatestArmed conflict among Congolese, Rwandan, and Ugandan militias has spawned an epidemic of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and perhaps most disturbingly, civilians too have begun to assault one another at higher and higher rates.
Back in 2006, Time called the conflict between the Congolese army and rebels allied with various foreign regimes “the deadliest war in the world,” causing the most deaths since World War II. The fighting continues, as does sexual violence, used by rebel groups, as Congolese activist Annie Rashidi-Mulumba puts it in The Daily Beast, “to control through terror.” And yet these tactics are also spreading to the civilian population — the Guardian cites a study showing that while only 1% of rapes in Congo were committed by civilians in 2004, that number rose to 38% by 2008. And rapists seem to be copying the militias’ tactics — the Guardian‘s Amy Fallon writes that “about 56% of sexual assaults were committed by armed men in homes in the presence of the victim’s families, including their children.” In 2009, she reports, more than 9,000 people were raped in the DRC.