Hundreds Were Raped on Congo-Angola Border

Source: New York Times

NAIROBI, Kenya — More than 600 women and girls were recently raped along the Congo-Angola border during a mass expulsion of illegal immigrants, according to the United Nations.

Many of the victims said they were locked in dungeon-like conditions for several weeks while they were raped repeatedly by security forces. At least one woman died from her internal injuries, United Nations officials said.

Maurizio Giuliano, a United Nations spokesman in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said Friday that it was unclear on which side of the Congo-Angola border the women had been attacked, and that the United Nations was calling on both countries to investigate promptly.

“What worries us is that rape seems to be becoming endemic in several parts of Congo,” Mr. Giuliano said, also referring to recent rapes in the eastern Kivu provinces. “We fear it’s becoming part of the routine.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/06/world/africa/06congo.html

---

This madness needs to STOP. Please contact Secretary Clinton and your members of Congress about this, and ask them to take on a more active role in helping the UN peacekeepers (who have been doing a really bad job) protect these women.

State Department contact form: http://contact-us.state.gov/cgi-bin/state.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php

Thanks for the post and for the contact information.

K&R

It's already endemic. How many more girls and women need to be brutally abused before someone does something about it. In some cases the protectors also became rapists.

:mad:

It is so horrifying.

:cry:

Throwing money at the problem isn't enough. Get military advisors to help the UN coordinate their patrols. Increase UN presence. Be aggressive and pro-active. That's why we need to keep putting pressure on the administration and Congress to pay attention to this crisis.

I'd love to see someone like Wesley Clark put in charge of a peace-keeping task force to do something about that fighting. He's got the military, political, and diplomatic experience to pull it off.

in our media. We are too obsessed with Lindsay Lohan's most recent escapades.

:cry: