Despite many efforts of United Nations and human right organizations in Africa, plenty of cases related to forced sexual intercourse still hits headlines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It had proved to become the biggest epicenter of one of the world’s major humanitarian crises.
In Congo, men of an ethnic group uses rape as weapon to take revenge from other rival group. It is the country where the national army is battling local and foreign militias in a struggle involving unresolved ethnic conflicts.
Congo’s rich mineral resources could make the country rich and prosperous but unfortunately regional power dynamics and greed of leaders of different ethnic society have never let them put full stop on current bloodshed in Congo. It is brutal reality that rape has been used to terrorise and punish civilians.
In Congo, many women are not able to access medical facilities within the 72 hours after being raped due to poor transportation facilities. So, many women are suffering from HIV and other sexual transmitted diseases.
In most of the countries Rape is considered as crime against humanity, but in Congo the rapists are unpunished and roaming free to repeat their crime again and again. Here Congolese authorities need to strengthen the judicial and penal systems to punish rapists.
The leader of the national and provincial governments, military commanders, the Catholic Church and other religious authorities should come forward to create small units which start sexual awareness training programme in remote places in Congo.
