Hillary Clinton will visit the Democratic Republic of Congo next week to focus attention (and hopefully resources) on the ongoing scourge of rape. And so it seems a good time to focus on some of the victims of that scourge.
The wife of a Congolese army soldier speaks while sitting on the bed assigned to her at a clinic for raped victims in Goma on November 24, 2008. After her husband left home to fight, she and other women were raped while working in a field. She survived the attack in which a child and other women died but was barely able to survive and care for her two boys. After an NGO found her at home barely surviving she was brought to the center. Women and girls in eastern Congo's North Kivu province are once again suffering increasing levels of sexual violence amid renewed conflict, instability and widespread displacement of civilians. Rape has been used as a weapon of war throughout eastern Congo for years. AFP PHOTO/Roberto SCHMIDT
A ten-year-old girl who was raped twice in the last ten days (C) is surrounded by other raped victims and a counselor (3rdL) after she was brought to the room she will be staying in after being admitted to the Congolese non-governmental organisation clinic for raped victims on November 24, 2008. The girl was first raped by several soldiers reportedly from the CNDP when fighting broke out between the rebel group and the congolese army around november 14. After that attack she managed to walk to the provincial capital city of Goma where she had no one to stay with. While roaming the streets she was assaulted by two men and raped again. After being found bleeding in a street by another woman she was brought to the center. Women and girls in eastern Congo's North Kivu province are once again suffering increasing levels of sexual violence amid renewed conflict, instability and widespread displacement of civilians. Rape has been used as a weapon of war throughout eastern Congo for years. AFP PHOTO/Roberto SCHMIDT
A woman (R), raped by a soldier from the Armed Forces of the Republic of Congo, holds her one and a half-year old baby as she sits behind her attacker, Sargent Shumbo Chance (L) while a military court was sentencing him to life in prison during a military trial in the North Kivu provincial capital city of Goma on November 17, 2008. The woman, who was raped in front of her husband, was one of many who were violated by soldiers during an attack by rebel soldiers from the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) near the northern entrance to the city on October 27. A military court sentenced several soldiers for rape, looting and dereliction of duty. The UN Human Rights Council should hold a special session on the Democratic Republic of Congo where rebels and government troops have been accused of war crimes, Amnesty International said Monday. AFP PHOTO/Roberto SCHMIDT
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner (L) visits patients at the Heal Africa hospital in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo city of Goma 26 January 2008. The hospital specialises in treating rape cases of women, which have been frequent during the conflict and blamed by victims and aid workers on armed men from all sides, including the DRCongo army. A ceasefire deal was signed earlier this week between rebel militias and the DRCongo government, aimed at ending the ongoing conflict in the troubled eastern provinces of Nord- and Sud-Kivu. AFP PHOTO / Frederic de La Mure
A woman has her hair braided in a centre for rape victims, 25 October 2007, near Goma. There are 30,000 reported cases of sexual violence per year in the lawless east of the country. AFP PHOTO / LIONEL HEALING
Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo: Raped women dry their clothes outside the Doctors on Call Services (DOCS) hospital 23 July 2006 in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In the eastern DRC, where armed groups regularly attack civilians, rape often accompanied by torture, is systematically used to terrorize local populations. The number of rapes has not regressed even though the last war in RDC ended in 2003. AFP PHOTO/JOSE CENDON
Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo: A raped woman takes care of her son at the Doctors on Call Services (DOCS) hospital 23 July 2006 in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In the eastern DRC, where armed groups regularly attack civilians, rape often accompanied by torture, is systematically used to terrorize local populations. The number of rapes has not regressed even though the last war in RDC ended in 2003. AFP PHOTO/JOSE CENDON
Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo: Nyirahabimana (R) sits on a bed in the GESOM (Medical help and solidarity group) center for raped women 27 April 2006 in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). She is waiting for the operation she hopes will mend the internal injuries she suffered after being raped by seven Rwandan rebels 10 months ago. The injuries are so severe that she cannot stand up without having urine and faeces trickle out of her vagina. In eastern DRC rape victims are almost systematically rejected by their families and by society. This rejection comes on top of the physical injuries inflicted on victims, many of whom require lengthy reconstructive surgery. Most rapes in this region are carried out with great brutality and the perpetrators are mostly armed men — regular soldiers loyal to the government, dissident troops, Rwandan rebels, Ugandan rebels and local militias with no political agenda that act like bandits. AFP PHOTO/JOSE CENDON
Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo: Congolese women sit on beds in the GESOM (Medical help and solidarity group) center for raped women 27 April 2006 in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In eastern DRC rape victims are almost systematically rejected by their families and by society. This rejection comes on top of the physical injuries inflicted on victims, many of whom require lengthy reconstructive surgery. Most rapes in this region which has seen numerous bouts of fighting and daily atrocities against civilians ever since the official end of the last DRC war three years ago, are carried out with great brutality and the perpetrators are mostly armed men — regular soldiers loyal to the government, dissident troops, Rwandan rebels, Ugandan rebels and local militias with no political agenda that act like bandits. AFP PHOTO/JOSE CENDON
KANYABIYUNGA, CONGO - MARCH 20 A woman describes her rape to a health worker March 20, 2006 in Kanyabiyunga, D.R. Congo. She alleges that she was raped by a soldier while eight months pregnant. While there are currently no available statistics for sexual assaults against women, health workers believe that the crime is at epidemic proportions in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The crimes often go unreported due to women's fear of rejection by husbands as well as stigmatization by the greater community. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country that loses an estimated 1,400 people per day due to war since 1998, is struggling to hold presidential elections this summer.(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
BARAKA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO Suzanne Yalaka (22) brestfeeds her baby Barunsan 11 Dicember 2003 in Kalundja, South Kivu, in the Democratic Republi of Congo (DRC). Suzanne was raped allegedly by ten FDD rebels (Forces for the Defence of the Democracy) from Burundi: after the baby was born as a consequence of the rape, she was left by her husband and left behind by her husband family. Since the start of the war in the DRC five years ago, aid workers say that in South Kivu Province alone, where a myriad of different armed groups have been operating, more than 8,000 rape cases have been reported. AFP PHOTO/GIANLUIGI GUERCIA
BARAKA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONG Salome Ectho (32, R) sits 11 December 2003 in her house in Kalundjia, near Baraka in the South Kivu Province in the DRCongo. Salome was raped allegedly by FDD rebels (Forces for the Defence of the Democracy) from Burundi: after the baby was born as a consequence of the rape, she was left alone by her family.. Since the start of the war in the DRC five years ago, aid workers say that in South Kivu Province alone, where a myriad of different armed groups have been operating, more than 8,000 rape cases have been reported. AFP PHOTO/GIANLUIGI GUERCIA
BUKAVU, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Two women, one holding her son, both rape victims, wait to be treated 07 November 2003 in one of the wards of the Bukavu's Panzi Hospital, in the South Kivu capitol Bukavu. Many women and young girls, victim of sexual violences, have had to wait the recent break in fightings in south Kivu to come for treatment in Bakavu. AFP PHOTO GIANLUIGI GUERCIA
Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo: Mukamusoni (R), 38, sits on a bed in the GESOM (Medical help and solidarity group) center for raped women 27 April 2006 in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In October 2004, she went to buy groundnuts with two of her children and three neighbors. They were attacked by six Rwandan rebels who killed her two children and the three neighbors before raping her. In eastern DRC rape victims are almost systematically rejected by their families and by society. Most rapes in this region which has seen numerous bouts of fighting and daily atrocities against civilians ever since the official end of the last DRC war three years ago, are carried out with great brutality and the perpetrators are mostly armed men — regular soldiers loyal to the government, dissident troops, Rwandan rebels, Ugandan rebels and local militias with no political agenda that act like bandits. AFP PHOTO/JOSE CENDON
KANYABIYUNGA, CONGO - MARCH 20: (AFRICA OUT) A woman speaks about her rape to a health worker March 20, 2006 in Kanyabiyunga, D.R. Congo. The woman alleges that she was raped by two members of the military while she was working in the fields. While there are currently no available statistics for sexual assaults against women, health workers believe that the crime is at epidemic proportions in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The crimes often go unreported due to women's fear of rejection by husbands as well as stigmatization by the greater community. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country that loses an estimated 1,400 people per day due to war since 1998, is struggling to hold presidential elections this summer. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Zamuda Sikujuwa, 53, seen at her temporary home in Goma, Congo, on Friday, Feb. 20, 2009, was raped in 2003 by soldiers who killed her husband and two children. Rape has been used as a brutal weapon of war in Congo, where conflicts based on tribal lines have spawned dozens of armed groups amid back-to-back civil wars that have killed more than 5 million people since 1994. (AP Photo/T.J. Kirkpatrick)
Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo: TO GO WITH AFP STORY by Helen Vesperini - FILES - A picture taken 27 April 2006 shows Marie, 16, with her baby Prince, 4 months, in GESOM center for raped women in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. In eastern DRC rape victims are almost systematically rejected by their families and by society. This rejection comes on top of the physical injuries inflicted on victims, many of whom require lengthy reconstructive surgery. Most rapes in this region which has seen numerous bouts of fighting and daily atrocities against civilians ever since the official end of the last DRC war three years ago, are carried out with great brutality and the perpetrators are mostly armed men — regular soldiers loyal to the government, dissident troops, Rwandan rebels, Ugandan rebels and local militias with no political agenda that act like bandits. AFP PHOTO/JOSE CENDON
Counselor Hortance Tshoma, left, talks with unidentified rape victim at a hospital in Goma, Congo, Monday, Nov. 26, 2007. Five years after the end of an earlier war that drew in half a dozen African armies and ripped apart this giant nation, fighting has broken out again in eastern Congo, threatening regional stability and putting hundreds of thousands of people on the run. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
Cecile Mulolo a psychologist councils an unidentified victim at the Panzi General Hospital for rape victims in Eastern Congo close to the town of Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday, June. 11, 2005. In Congo, for those who manage to survive the kidnappings and gang rapes that leave many women dead, the clinic is doing wonders to return whatever dignity is left. The clinic treats over 300 rape victims every month, often in various stages of deep psychological trauma. (AP Photo/Bryan Mealer)
Clinton Says DRC 'Worst Example of Man's Inhumanity to Women' [VOA News]
Earlier: War Crimes Against Women, Men, Continue Unabated Abroad