DRC-RAPE AS A TOOL OF WAR - Mary F. Calvert Photography

DRC: Rape as a Tool of War

In The Democratic Republic of the Congo, it is more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier. In a country plagued by decades of violence, rape has become the weapon of choice on both sides of the ongoing civil unrest; it is cheaper than bullets and is guaranteed to leave a community subservient or destroyed. Rape has been a tool of war since the beginning of time, but what is different in Congo is the systematic nature of this crime and the sheer numbers of women being attacked. Tens of thousands of women have been raped in Congo in the last 20 years of war, most of them gang raped. According to the United Nations Population Fund, an average of 1,100 rape cases are reported each month. The future of Congo remains uncertain. Each new battle between government forces and rebel militias leaves behind the scar of more brutalized women and girls.

Masika Katsuva cries while telling visitors about her brutal rape. She is the mother of four daughters and was once the wife of a successful businessman. In 1999, Rwanda-backed militants broke into the family's home. The rebels tortured her husband to death and raped two of her daughters. They sliced her face with a knife. Finally, they raped Ms. Katsuva on top of her husband's mutilated body. The rape was so savage that she had to undergo eight surgeries over the course of a year to repair delicate tissue. She runs a combination halfway house and vegetable farm just outside Goma. It is a sanctuary for violated women that enables them to gather strength and self-respect through medical attention, faith, work and, most important, the company of others who share their horrific experiences.

A rape survivor goes into labor in a dark room at "Mamma Masika" Katsuva's farm. She was abducted by soldiers and held in captivity as a sex slave for five months before escaping when she became pregnant. Ms. Katsuva listens with a stethoscope to the moaning woman's belly, then leaves her alone. She says the farm has helped nearly 6,000 women since it opened in 2000. More women turn up at the farm every week, and some go into labor during the long journey.

Women and children watch Congo National Army soldiers patrol their village of Bugeri in the South Kivu province of Congo.

Santa, 16, learns to sew at the HEALing Arts program at HEAL Africa hospital in Goma. She and her one-year-old baby, who was conceived when she was raped, have spent three months in the hospital's traumatic fistula ward. "I was back at my home and I was studying. I was a student and coming from school late at night when they raped me," she says, "I heard about HEAL Africa, and they told me I could learn how to sew until I can go back to school." The Christian charity offers a full slate of services to women who have been sexually assaulted: surgery to repair rape-torn tissues, psychological and legal counseling, pastoral care, vegetable gardens to maintain, and a workshop that teaches sewing.

A woman carrying bundles on her head and back passes young men standing along the road in Bukavu, DRC. In Congolese culture, women appear to do everything: work the fields, gather the firewood, keep the home, raise the children and cook the meals. Nevertheless, without men's support and respect, experts warn, the cycle of violence and abandonment will never be broken.

A woman walks past a sign warning against sexual violence in the North Kivu region. The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of Africa's largest countries, a lushly overgrown, under populated nation of approximately 67 million people living in a land about the size of Western Europe. Despite its beauty and fertility, Congo is ravaged by armed conflict and a resulting humanitarian crisis. An estimated 5 million people have died by violence or related hunger and disease since 1998, a figure that the International Rescue Committee says increases by 45,000 deaths every month. The U.N. relief agencies and nongovernmental organizations cannot keep track of the wounded, displaced and raped.

Bukavu Police Department Maj. Honorine Munyole takes the statement of a 15-year-old girl who was summoned to the police station by officers who caught the young man she said raped her two weeks earlier. Maj. Munyole created the sexual violence unit in Bukavu and has expanded it to almost 30 officers — barely enough, she says. "Men will not stop raping women as long as they are almost sure to get away with it," she says. "Right now, they know they will not be caught, and until the impunity has disappeared, there is nothing to stop them."

A 15-year-old rape victim, sits with Maj. Honorine Munyole, while Capt. Binginama Florimo, watches over the young man who is accused of raping her.

Capt. Binginama Florimo, takes the young man into custody who is accused of raping the 15-year-old girl on the left. Under new laws, he could draw 15 years in a Congolese prison. Or not. A mere $40 can sometimes erase a name from the docket. Gang-rape has replaced looting and pillaging as the chosen weapon of social terror because it is more effective in destroying families, villages and tribes. Worse, the practice is spreading among demobilized soldiers and civilian men.