For years now the culture of impunity against rapists in the Congo has further humiliated victims. Many are too frightened to speak up, others too shamed. The eastern Congo, according to the United Nations, is the scene of world's worst orchestrated campaign of rape. Another tool that breeds fear for reasons insane by various military factions, government soldiers, and the residual grievances of Rwanda's ghastly genocide.
Jeffrey Gettleman of the New York Times reports that some rape victims are now coming forward to chase the culture of impunity. In Bukavu, one of the biggest cities in the country, over 100 cased have been reported – more than any other year. Women are the backbone of this society. They provide the food, they provide the care for their families, and they suffer. Some see improvements. "It's safer today than it was," said Euphrasie Mirindi, a woman who was raped in 2006. "But it's still not safe," writes Gettleman.
This part of the world is one of our greatest unreported tragedies. If numbers bare credence then the estimated 5.4 million deaths since 1998 should more than shock anyone.
