Democratic Republic of Congo

The XX Factor : Rape In Congo, A Year Later: Change?: “Every woman should read New York Times reporter Jeffrey Gettleman’s latest missive on the rape-as-war-tactic epidemic in Congo: ‘Rape Victims’ Words Help Congo Into Change.’

Photo by Jeffrey Gettleman/The New York Times

A year ago, Gettleman exposed the horrors happening in Bukavu, Congo, where thousands of women were being brutally raped as a consequence of the country’s ongoing internal strife. In 2006, according to the UN, some 26,000 women were victims of sexual assaults in South Kivu Province alone. As a Congolese gynecologist stated, the savage attacks, which sometimes involve bayonets and piece of wood, resulting in the destruction of victims’ reproductive and digestive systems, are ‘done to destroy women.’”

(Via Slate.)