The UN reported that more than 500 systematic rapes were committed by armed combatants in eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since late July — more than double the number previously reported — and accepted partial responsibility for not protecting citizens.
UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Atul Khare told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that at least 267 more rapes occurred in another area of the country’s east, in addition to 242 rapes earlier reported in and around Luvungi, a village of about 2,200 people located about 30km from a UN peacekeepers’ camp.
“While the primary responsibility for protection of civilians lies with the state, its national army and police force,” Khare said, “clearly, we have also failed. Our actions were not adequate, resulting in unacceptable brutalization of the population of the villages in the area. We must do better.”
The UN peacekeeping force in the DRC, called MONUSCO, on Sept. 1 launched an operation using 750 troops to back efforts by DR Congolese security forces to arrest the perpetrators of the attacks, Khare said. At least 27 rebels armed with automatic rifles have surrendered and at least four more have been arrested, he said.
Meanwhile, Khare said, peacekeepers will undertake more night patrols and perform more random checks on communities. The UN is also looking into ways of providing peacekeepers with mobile phones by installing a high frequency radio in Luvungi, he said.
Rape as a weapon of war has become shockingly commonplace in the DRC, where the government army and UN peacekeepers have failed to defeat the few thousand rebels responsible for a protracted conflict fueled by vast mineral reserves. Luvungi is a farming center on the main road between Goma, the eastern provincial capital, and the major mining town of Walikale.
Khare told reporters after the council session that more than 15,000 rapes were reported in the DRC in both 2008 and last year.
Ambassador Susan Rice, the US representative to the UN, called Tuesday’s briefing “very frank, comprehensive and illuminating,” and said she looked forward to more sessions examining ways to prevent future mass rapes in DR Congo.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in recent days sent Khare to the DRC to investigate why UN peacekeepers didn’t learn about at least 242 mass rapes in the Luvungi area from July 30 to Aug. 4 until Aug. 12, when it was informed by the International Medical Corps, which was treating many of the victims.
The additional sexual attacks, in an area called Uvira and other regions of North and South Kivu, came to light during Khare’s trip.
He told council members he learned of 74 cases of sexual violence, including against 21 minors — all girls between the ages of seven and 15 — and six men, in a village called Miki, in South Kivu. All the women in another village, Kiluma, may have been systematically raped, he said.
Altogether, he detailed new reports of mass rapes on various communities that added up to at least 267.
The assistant secretary-general called for prosecution of Rwandan rebel FDLR and Congolese Mai-Mai rebels blamed for many of the attacks and UN sanctions against their leaders.
Margot Wallstrom, who is responsible for UN efforts to combat sexual violence in conflict, expressed her alarm over the increase in reported rapes, saying they show “a broader pattern of widespread and systematic rape and pillage.” A senior member of Wallstrom’s staff accompanied Khare on his recent trip.
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