Militia massed raped 303 in Congo

AFP:

Three groups of armed militia raped at least 303 civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo over four days, said a UN initial report on the atrocities whose "scale and viciousness... defy belief."

"At least 303 civilians were raped, in many cases multiple times," said a statement issued by the UN Joint Human Rights Office in the country in a preliminary report outlining the violations which took place between July 30 and August 2.

"The known victims include 235 women, 52 girls, 13 men and three boys," detailed the probe, following the team's visit to 13 affected villages in the Walikale region in Nord-Kivu province.

"In addition, at least 923 houses and 42 shops were looted and 116 people were abducted in order to carry out forced labour," it said.

Rupert Colville, spokesman for the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, warned that the figures could still rise.

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"The scale and viciousness of these mass rapes defy belief," said UN human rights chief Navi Pillay.

"Even in the eastern part of DRC where rape has been a perennial and massive problem for the past 15 years, this incident stands out because of the extraordinarily cold-blooded and systematic way in which it appears to have been planned and executed," she added.

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The UN report blamed the rapes on around 200 members of the Mai-Mai Cheka group, rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and a group connected to army deserter Emmanuel Nsengiyumva.

Describing the horrific events, the report said the militia arrived in villages pretending that they wanted to protect the population, before launching their attacks in small groups.

Armed with AK47s, grenades and machetes, the militia trapped the population, cutting off all telephone communications and preventing the villagers from raising the alarm.

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The UN has proposed a lawfare approach to dealing with the crime, but does not have the resources to pursue the war criminals. The UN military forces in the area were also not up to the task of defending the people while the assaults were underway. It is going to take a competent military force to take on the people responsible for the atrocity and destroy them. Unfortunately, there does not appear to be one in Africa at the moment.