Therefore, it’s both unsurprising and saddening when one discovers how little we know about what goes on in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Most people cannot grasp the extent of the mass, strategic sexual assault that occurs there, resulting in the despicable statistic that hundreds of Congolese women have been raped and mutilated each day since the start of the Congo War in 1996. These women range in age from one-year-old babies to 85-year-old grandmothers. This systematic rape has dealt sadistic damage to bodies, minds, lives—entire societies. Rape has been a weapon of war considered fail-proof by Congolese and Rwandan troops. For some reason, guns and tanks seem to pale in comparison, as if mere death is somehow insufficient, but inhuman humiliation is necessary to truly defeat an adversary.
It is difficult to mark the true date of advent for the widespread use of rape as a tactic in the military conflicts of sub-Saharan Africa. However, the conflict that has seen the most egregious examples of these atrocities began when the Tutsi government in Rwanda sent troops to the DRC to pursue Hutu militias responsible for the 1994 genocide. When the Hutu surrendered with little resistance, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda saw a chance to gain control of the country. He quickly mobilized Congolese rebels to overthrow Mobutu Sese Seko, dictator of the DRC, bringing in allies Burundi and Uganda to join the fray. The rebel troops took Kinshasa in 1997, inaugurating Laurent Kabila as president. In 1998, the Rwandan troops decided to seize the opportunity and usurp Kabila, who immediately called on his allies in Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe. The ensuing collision of seven warring nations resulted in mass bloodshed and a frenzied looting of the diamonds and other minerals for which the DRC has long been coveted.
The peace deal that nominally resolved the conflict in 2002 has resulted in a very delicate state of calm in the capital, in which President Joseph Kabila (Laurent’s son) and four major warlords have a say in a power-sharing government. But outside Kinshasa, the Mai Mai Congolese counterrevolutionaries are still in a state of open war against Rwandan troops. The tactics utilized by the combatants are sickening. A village that has been captured from the Mai Mai will be ravaged by Rwandan soldiers—the men killed, the boys recruited by force, the women raped and often taken hostage and the houses burnt. Indeed, the Rwandans often rape to infect the Congolese women with AIDS, cutting family lines short and decreasing the enemy population without having to fight a single army. Once the Mai Mai retake the village, they pillage and rape all over again; the cycle goes on and on. Even the assailants themselves are victims in some ways—many of the soldiers are forced by their commanding officers to participate in these heinous acts.
Thus, it is unsurprising that rape has become horrifyingly commonplace, as the policies of the contending militaries have reduced Congolese family life to the law of the jungle. Even non-military acts of rape are no longer received with deserved abhorrence—a grandfather raping a granddaughter could easily go unpunished, even overlooked. Mass rape annihilates not only the individual, but also the individual’s bonds with the people they love. A husband disowning a raped wife or daughter is the norm, and both women and families throughout the DRC have been subjected to defilement and destitution as a result.
The gory details of the DRC rape-fest are chilling. Each armed group has a trademark manner of violating, as Dr. Mukwege, head gynecologist of Panzi Hospital, told Ms. magazine. The Burundis rape both men and women. The Mai Mai rape with bayonets or branches and then mutilate the victims. The Rwandans set groups of soldiers to rape one woman. Nearly a hundred girls and women line up daily for surgery at Panzi Hospital. For some, rape has torn out chunks of flesh from the vagina, and the 10s of kilometers these women are forced to travel in order to reach a hospital result in infection from countless other diseases. For children and victims of gun-rape, the pain and damage is reportedly even worse. The few hospitals in Eastern Congo are grossly unfunded—a single band-aid is hard to come across, doctors and nurses work for free and Dr. Mukwege is one of the only surgeons in the entire region who is capable of performing vaginal reconstructive surgery. Together, the gynecologists can perform only six surgeries a day for the hundreds of women who need it. The situation is dire, bordering on desperate.
Where is the United Nations in all of this? One hundred and fifty allegations of sexual abuse (along with hundreds of other unaccounted incidents) were reportedly committed by the U.N. peacekeepers themselves. Peacekeepers and civilian workers hired by the U.N., such as the Blue Berets, have raped women, at times promising them safety, work and food for sex. Why is nothing being done? The U.N. claims that peace in Congo is highly fragile—international involvement would break the truce between Rwanda and Congo. Secondly, the U.N. appears to be broke, at least when it comes to funding relief in sub-Saharan Africa. The last time the U.N. mission requested additional soldiers and money from the Security Council, only a pittance was granted. Of course, the U.N. was able to provide European Kosovo with 40,000 troops, compared to the measly 12,000 it seems to be able to spare for an African country as large as the entirety of Western Europe.
The four million who have died and the millions of women who have been raped have been abandoned by the U.N. and the rich Western countries that control its agenda. Whether this is because they are voiceless, poor or African is immaterial. In this instance, the international community has failed its test, and must take action to avert further catastrophes. As Americans, we bear some of this guilt for shutting our eyes to the suffering because it occurs in a faraway, unfamiliar land.