UN: At least 121 women raped in Congo

United Nations human rights investigators have confirmed that at least one hundred and twenty one women were raped by Congolese troops who attacked and looted villages in the lawless east last month, a UN spokesman said on Friday.

Those large-scale rapes were reported to the team in interviews with victims, police and medical staff, he said. “(UN human rights staff) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has confirmed that mass rape, pillaging, and cruel and degrading treatment were committed in Nakiele, by soldiers of the armed forces,” spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing. Referring to the interviews, he also added: “According to their statements, those soldiers raped 121 women, stole 157 goats and looted other goods including some $90,000 in cash and gold.” A spokesman for Congo’s government has said that Colonel Kifaru Niragiye may have been behind the rapes after he and around 100 men deserted from a training camp where they were due to be integrated into the army. The UN refugee agency said on June 24 that up to 170 women had been raped — the largest reported mass rape in the turbulent central African country in nearly a year.