Catholic Online-The United Nations reports that more than 200 women have been raped by the Democratic Republic of Congo during the seizure of a town by rebels. "There were no fighting and no deaths," Will Cragin of the International Medical Corps said. There was just "lots of pillaging and the systematic raping of women."
Catholic Online) - Cragin said that aid and U.N. workers knew fighters from Rwandan rebel FDLR group and Congolese Mai-Mai rebels had occupied Luvungi town and surrounding villages the day after the attack began on July 30. The U.N. says at least 5,400 women in the DRC are believed to have been raped in 2009 alone. The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo had issued no statement about the attacks and said that it was still investigating.
Cragin told the Associated Press that his organization was only able to get into the town, which he said is about 16 kilometers from a U.N. military camp, after rebels withdrew earlier this month.
Luvungi is a farming center on the main road between Goma, the eastern provincial capital, and the major mining town of Walikale.
Four young boys were also raped, according to Kasimbo Charles Kacha, the district medical chief.
U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said the peacekeeping mission has a military operating base in Kibua; about 30 kilometers east of the village, but villagers were prevented from reaching the nearest communication point as FDLR fighters blocked the road.
Civil society leader Charles Masudi Kisa said there were only about 25 peacekeepers against some 200 to 400 rebels who occupied the town of about 2,200 people and five nearby villages.
"When the peacekeepers approached a village, the rebels would run into the forest, but then the Blue Helmets had to move on to another area, and the rebels would just return," Masudi said.
"During the attack [the rebels] looted [the] population's houses and raped several women in Luvungi and the surrounding areas," Stefania Trassari, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
"International Medical Corps (IMC) reported that FDLR systematically raped the population during its four-day stay in Luvungi and surrounding areas. A total of 179 cases of sexual violence were reported," Trassari said, adding all of the cases were of rape against women.
"Nearly all reported rapes were described as having been perpetrated by two-to-six armed men, often taking place in front of the women's children and husbands," a statement read.
http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=37963
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