28 child rapes cases confirmed, eight under investigation in Congo

Herald Globe Friday 3rd September, 2010

A report by the United Nations says up to 15% of the victims of the recent mass rape in the Congo were children

At least 240 people were raped in a 4-day spree among villages in North Kivu province from July 30 to August 2.

Members of armed groups active in the far east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, carried out the rapes, the UN report released on Friday said.

The attackers set up road blocks preventing the villagers from fleeing, or alerting other nearby villages. Aside from the rapes, the armed groups also looted homes.

The UN report said 28 of the victims were children, twenty seven girls and 1 boy. There were twenty seven actual rapes, and 1 attempted rape.

Another eight cases involving children are under investigation and were not able to be confirmed by the release date of the report.

The North and South Kivu provinces have been repeatedly subject to attacks. The UN says more than 9,000 rapes were reported last year in the provinces, and that this number is understaed as many cases are not reported.

"The recent mass rapes underscores the need for an end to impunity for perpetrators of such crimes," Margot Wallström, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict, told reporters earlier this week.

These latest atrocities reinforce that “you cannot have a policy of zero tolerance backed by zero consequences,” she said.

“So long as rapists remain at large, they hold the whole reputation of the Congo hostage.”

Ki-moon has sent Atul Khare, Assistant Secretary-General in the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, to the region.

Mr. Khare has met with senior Congolese officials and representatives of non-governmental organizations and civil in the capital, Kinshasa, and is now in the east. He is expected to brief Security Council members on his visit next Tuesday.