The DR Congo rape crisis just gets worse and worse

Atul Khare, a senior UN official, told the Security Council that the scale of systematic rape by armed rebels was far worse than feared. He said that up to 500 women and children were now believed raped in recent weeks - more than double the previously reported figure. He called for the prosecution of Rwandan and Congolese rebels who are blamed for many of the attacks. Khare, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping, was sent to DR Congo by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to investigate the attacks in July and August 2010. He reported to the Security Council that although 242 rapes had earlier been reported in and around Luvungi, a village not far from a UN peacekeepers' camp, 260 more rapes had come to light in the Uvira area and other regions of North and South Kivu. Khare said he had learned of 74 attacks in a village called Miki, in South Kivu. The victims included 21 children - all girls aged between seven and 15 - and six men. All the women in another village, Kiluma, may have been systematically raped, he said. DR Congo has a shocking reputation for sexual violence, and rape is commonly used as a weapon of war. The UN says at least 8,300 rapes were reported in 2009 and it is believed that many more attacks go unreported.