Congo

Congo’s Forgotten Curse: Epidemic of Female-on-Female Rape

In a secure darkened room, Marie, a 36-year-old mother of six, whispers and struggles to make eye contact. A shoe trader, she regularly travels by bus to sell her wares in remote parts of the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Last year, her bus broke down on the often impassable forest road to the town of Walikale. Her bags were …

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African officials and the U.N. announce a new “framework” to tackle instability in the Congo, South Korea’s first-female president is sworn in and Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic has resigned

Congo’s Election Chaos: When Having the Vote Fixes Nothing

When the Democratic Republic of Congo held its first multiparty general election for 41 years in 2006, the event was hailed as a milestone on the slow march out of civil war and towards functionality for the world’s largest failed state. Five years later, as the country holds another poll, the naivete of the Western belief in …

Rape as a Weapon of War: Men Suffer, Too

It’s talked about in whispers, if at all. But men and boys are all-too frequently subjected to sexual violence, particularly in times of conflict, forced confinement or war. The problem is persistent and global. For the most part, though, nobody wants to talk about it. Over the last few months, however, a handful of reports from West …