Report cites hundreds of rapes on Congo-Angola border

By Polly Johnson
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

Security forces raped as many as 700 women and girls along the Congo-Angola border (Photo Courtesy of Al Jazeera).
Security forces raped as many as 700 women and girls along the Congo-Angola border (Photo Courtesy of Al Jazeera).

CONGO – Almost seven hundred women and girls were raped along the Congo-Angola border during a mass expulsion of some seven thousand Congolese from Angola in October, according to a recently released United Nations report.

The report was released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and said that 6,621 people arrived in two territories of Luiza and Tshikapa/Kamonia, in Western Kasi province.

Many of the victims said that they were locked in dungeon-like conditions for several weeks and raped repeatedly.

Separately, doctors conducted examinations of 35 women in the Congolese town of Tembo last week, confirming that they had been raped and left without clothes in the bush along the border.

The reports come after the wave of mass rapes that occurred in eastern Congo between July 30 and August 3 by rebel militiamen.

“What worries us is that rape seems to be becoming endemic in several parts of Congo.  We fear it’s becoming part of the routine,” said U.N. spokesman Maurizio Giuliano said, referring to the recent rapes that occurred in the eastern Kivu province.

U.N. officials call Congo the worst place in the world for sexual violence.  Despite the presence of U.N. peacekeepers, more than 200 women were raped in a single thatched-roof village in eastern Congo a few months ago.

This is not the first time the countries have expelled each other’s citizens. Last year, Angola expelled 160,000 Congolese, while Congo expelled 51,000 Angolans.  Relations have deteriorated between the countries, due in part to offshore oil ownership, Angola’s diamond exports, and closer Congolese relations with Rwanda and Uganda.

Lambert Mende, the DRC information minister, said that the no reports of rape have been reported to authorities.

“We’re not informed. We don’t know, these figures are not confirmed,” Mende said. “There are expulsions, perhaps there are rapes but we have received no complaints and we don’t want to launch a dossier.”

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – UN: Mass rapes on Angola-DRC border – 6 November 2010

AP – UN: 700 sexual attacks seen on Congo-Angola border – 6 November 2010

CNN – UNICEF reports sexual violence in the Congo region – 6 November 2010

New York Times – Hundreds Were Raped on Congo-Angola Border – 6 November 2010

Reuters Africa – Hundreds abused during Angola expulsions, U.N. says – 6 November 2010

Author: Impunity Watch Archive