Rape, a Weapon of War
Originally published at News24.com, October 3, 2002
Bukavu, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo — Every kick from the child in her belly is a dull reminder to Agnes of the night armed men burst into her home and raped her until she fell unconscious.
What local laws remain in Congo's war-ruined east prevent the 20-year-old from having an abortion.
"It is a child of evil, but it is also partly my blood, so I don't know what to do.
It torments me," she says in a whisper, explaining she was a virgin before the attack.
So distraught are the 15 women huddled under a tree at a help centre in the town of Bukavu that occasionally they vomit at the thought of their experiences.
Those experiences are steadily emerging as a terrifying pattern of mass rape in Africa's biggest war.
Consolate, a 40-year-old mother of eight was raped on three separate occasions over the past two months, most recently by five armed militiamen who stole what little her family had, including four goats and a pig.
Borrowed rags
"Men who do this are not normal. If I could kill them I would, but it's impossible to catch them," she says through a translator, adding that she is reduced to dressing in rags borrowed from a friend.
"They took everything, even my clothes," she says.
Such stories are all too common in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where many rural families no longer spend nights at home, opting instead to sleep in groups in the bush "with our ears open" for fear of attacks from the brutal militias and rival rebel soldiers who roam the lawless mountains and forests of the former Zaire with impunity.
More than two million people have died in Congo's four-year conflict involving six national armies, several rebel movements and countless bandit gangs all fighting for control over the central African country's vast supply of natural resources, including gold, diamonds and timber.
But hidden by taboos and the fear of confession, the added horror of sexual violence used as a weapon of war is only just emerging.
"Sexual violence has been used as a weapon of war by most of the forces involved in this conflict. Soldiers and combatants rape and otherwise abuse women and girls as part of their effort to win and maintain control over civilians and the territory they inhabit," said a recent Human Rights Watch report.
Ignored crisis
The conflict has created the worst and most ignored humanitarian crisis on the planet, observers say.
"I can't think of anywhere else where the situation is as bad as it is here. Forget Afghanistan under the Taliban, eastern Congo is probably the worst place in the world to be a woman. And the thing is, very little is being done to change that," said one foreign aid worker requesting anonymity.
The region was plunged into anarchy when thousands of Hutu extremists known as Interahamwe fled into Congo's wilds after committing the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Rwanda and an allied Congolese rebel army pursued them, triggering a messy war that has seen Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia support Kinshasa's central government, which has also battled rebel groups backed by Uganda.
The civilian population is caught in a circle of violence that includes traditional Mai-Mai warriors who, like the Interahamwe, have links to the government and mostly fight the Rwandans and their rebel allies, the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD), who loosely control a vast swath of Africa's third largest nation.
The sheer number of factions has dampened hopes for peace that were raised in July by a deal under which Rwanda would pull out troops in exchange for the disarmament of the Hutus.
Weapon
"Rape is frequently used (by the RCD) as a weapon against women to punish husbands suspected of collaborating with the Mai-Mai. Some combatants are said to have boasted about having infected women they raped with Aids," said a report published this month by a Canadian human rights organisation.
Experts estimate that up to 60% of soldiers and militias in Congo are HIV positive.
With the massive scale of rape, the long-term consequences for the country are likely to be catastrophic. In some villages such as the remote gold-mining town of Shabunda, up to 80% of women have been raped, witnesses say.
Local gynaecologists in Bukavu say women have had their genitals mutilated with sticks, knives, razor blades and guns. Several women have been shot between the legs and killed after being raped by RCD soldiers, according to Human Rights Watch.
The hunters follow a pattern, attacking at night or targeting women collecting food, water of firewood from fields. Women and girls are frequently abducted, kept as sex slaves and forced to cook, do laundry, and transport looted goods for their captors.
Those who survive abduction or attack are marked for life.
Insanity
"For many it means death from disease and infection or insanity from the trauma. And because rape is socially unacceptable, women are often shunned by their husbands, families and communities," says Mathilde Muhindo, a nun who runs Bukavu's Olame Centre, where the 15 women under the tree arrived on a recent morning.
The centre, which has seen a sharp increase in arrivals recently, tries to provide rape victims with shelter and basic medical care. But with limited means, it can only offer a meal, a hospital visit and a night's accommodation before the victims must return to the hills where attackers wait to strike again.
"I have to go back because where can I flee to? If I'm going to die, I will die at home. The entire population is suffering and so am I," says Janine, a 15-year-old girl who was forced by nine Interahamwe armed with machetes and guns to carry goods looted from her village 30km outside Bukavu. Three men raped her before she escaped when they got drunk.
Less than 10% of women raped in Congo admit to it because of the social stigma attached, experts say. The extent of the problem is only now surfacing because women have long suffered in silence.
"Finally, there are coming and talking because they realise they have nothing left to lose," said a worker from Doctors Without Borders, one of the few foreign agencies helping victims.
"I am the object of mockery in my community. It's a double insult because I'm pregnant and I have no hope of getting a husband or reclaiming my dignity. But it's not my fault," says Agnes, who has lost four members of her family in the war.
