Democratic Republic of Congo, Sexual Violence
May 2002
A violent war has plagued Eastern Congo since 1994, when Hutu extremists sought sanctuary in the region following their part in the Rwandan genocide. The new Rwandan government force followed them over the border seeking revenge. Armies from Uganda, Zimbabwe and Angola, became involved; and Congo's government forces from Kinshasa tried in vain to regain control of the vast area. Sexual Violence against women and children living the region has been used extensively by all sides of the conflict.
"Women and girls are being forced to pay the price of this war. They are now so traumatised they will never have normal lives," a gynocologist working in the region said. " For every woman who comes to me for help there are thousands more. For a child who has watched his mother and sisters raped, for the babies born because of rape, to the little girl raped so often she will never walk, our society is being crippled by this sexual violence."
Left: A widow with her young child in a village that has been repeatedly attacked by different armies.
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Democratic Republic of Congo, Sexual Violence
May 2002
A waiting room of a health center in North Kivu, DRC. Many women told of horrific stories of sexual violence by various military groups.
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Democratic Republic of Congo, Sexual Violence
May 2002
Women and their children in Kalemie hospital, Katanga, who have walked for days to reach the sanctuary of the hospital. All told horrific tales of how their villages, and women, had been attacked.
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Democratic Republic of Congo, Sexual Violence
May 2002
A woman and her children in Nyunzu hospital, Katanga, who has walked for days to reach the sanctuary of the UN protected town. There are no beds and little food.
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Democratic Republic of Congo, Sexual Violence
May 2002
A mother and her children in Nyunzu hospital who fled her village following a series of brutal attacks by Mai Mai soldiers. Her husband deserted her and she spent over three weeks in the bush where she gave birth to the baby she is feeding.
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Democratic Republic of Congo, Sexual Violence
May 2002
A woman is told she is pregnant after being attacked by soldiers who raided her village. She already has 7 children and her husband has left her.
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Democratic Republic of Congo, Sexual Violence
May 2002
A young boy abandoned by his mother in an orphanage after she was raped.
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Democratic Republic of Congo, Sexual Violence
May 2002
A family stand outside their homes in a small village north of Goma, North Kivu that suffers from frequent attacks by different militia groups. Their small huts offer little protection from these attacks.
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Democratic Republic of Congo, Sexual Violence
May 2002
An rebel RCD - Goma soldier guards a village in North Kivu.
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Democratic Republic of Congo, Sexual Violence
May 2002
Many women have been abandoned and widowed as a result of the ongoing war. Desperate for money to feed their children, they become transporters, earning as little as one cent per day. Travelling along roads patrolled by the military makes them vulnerable to attack.
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Democratic Republic of Congo, Sexual Violence
May 2002
Attacked by soldiers when they raided her small village last year, this 67 year old woman has been abandoned by her husband and now lives alone in a tiny grass hut with little support from any of her family.
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Democratic Republic of Congo, Sexual Violence
May 2002
A woman nurses her starving child having walked for 30 days to reach the sanctuary of the hospital in Kalemie. Many women are too scared to go into the forest to forage for food for their children or cultivate food due to fear of attack by the military. Thousands of children are suffering from malnutrition as a result.
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Democratic Republic of Congo, Sexual Violence
May 2002
This woman's village was repeatedly attacked by rebel soldiers, Her husband abandoned her and fled, leaving her to fend for her four small children. She was too terrified to venture into the fields to cultivate food and all four of her children died of malnutrition. She now works in this nutritional feeding center run by the IRC in South Kivu.
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Democratic Republic of Congo, Sexual Violence
May 2002
Portrait of a young girl in a female ward of Bukavu Hospital.
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Democratic Republic of Congo, Sexual Violence
May 2002
At a meeting organised by a local women's group in Bukavu, Eastern Congo, hundreds of women come together to share stories of the brutal violence they have been subjected to. The ongoing conflict means there is little recourse for justice.
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