BBC News - UN official calls DR Congo 'rape capital of the world'

BBC News - UN official calls DR Congo 'rape capital of the world'

UN official calls DR Congo  'rape capital of the world' The Democratic Republic of Congo is "the rape  capital of the world", a senior UN official has said. Margot Wallstrom, the UN's special representative  on sexual violence in conflict, urged the Security  Council to punish the perpetrators in DR Congo. Rape remained a dominant feature of the ongoing  conflict in eastern DR Congo, with impunity being  the rule rather than the exception, she said. More than 8,000 women were raped during fighting  in 2009, the UN says. "Women have no rights, if those who violate their  rights go unpunished," Ms Wallstrom told the UN  Security Council on her return from DR Congo. "If women continue to suffer sexual violence, it is  not because the law is inadequate to protect them,  but because it is inadequately enforced," she said. The UN mission in DR Congo, Monuc, has been  trying to deal with the problem by escorting women  on their way to market, developing early warning  systems and working with local officials,  according to a UN statement. In April, research on sexual violence in DR  Congo's eastern South Kivu province produced  shocking findings. The report by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative  showed that 60% of rape victims in South Kivu  were gang raped by armed men, more than half  of the assaults took place in the victims' homes  and an increasing number of attacks were being  carried out by civilians. Eastern DR Congo is still plagued by army and  militia violence despite the end of the country's  five-year war in 2003. Monuc troops have been backing efforts to defeat  rebels linked to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda,  who are operating in eastern DR Congo.