Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited today with women and girls who have been victims of sexual violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country that the United Nations says has witnessed some of the highest levels of such abuses in the world.
According to the UN Children’s Fund, rape has been used as a weapon of war in DRC and an estimated 200,000 women and girls have been assaulted over the past 12 years. While sexual violence is rampant and prevalent throughout Congolese society, the area that has been most affected has been the eastern part of the country, particularly the Kivu region.
Mr. Ban paid a visit to North Kivu, which has witnessed over six months of clashes between the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) and the mainly Tutsi rebel group known as the National Congress in Defense of the People (CNDP), displacing some 250,000 people, on top of the 800,000 already uprooted in the province.
He and Mrs. Ban Soon-taek visited with women and girls at the Heal Africa Hospital in the provincial capital of Goma, which treats, among others, disabled children and female victims of sexual violence.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Ban met with President Joseph Kabila and some senior officials.
Tomorrow the Secretary-General travels to neighbouring Rwanda, where he is expected to meet with President Paul Kagame, before continuing on to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for an international conference on Gaza’s reconstruction.
Source: un.org
