More than 150 female prisoners were raped and burned to death during a jailbreak last week in Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Seif Magango told CNN that the Congolese female prisoners were raped by escaping male inmates, and that the male inmates also set the fire. As disturbing as these headlines are, former UN chief and humanitarian lawyer Andrew Macleod’s says that’s just the tip of the iceberg… the worst sex abuse and rape accusations are against aid workers from many nongovernmental organizations, the United Nations and peacekeeping forces.
According to an investigation by The Associated Press, between 2004 and 2014 the U.N. reported more than 2,000 cases of sexual abuse and exploitation by U.N. peacekeepers. Even though the U.N. claims to have a zero tolerance for sexual abuse among its workers, it has not yet demonstrated full transparency and accountability.
DRC communications minister Patrick Muyaya confirmed the rape of the 165 women, telling CNN Wednesday that “the government condemns with the greatest energy this barbaric crime.”
Seif Magango, a UN Human Rights Office spokesperson told CNN that most of female inmates who were raped also died in the fire. However, between 9 and 13 female inmates, “all of whom had also been raped,” survived the blaze, Magango added, citing a judicial source in the DRC. “We did not independently verify the judicial official’s report ourselves, but we do consider his account to be credible,” Magango told CNN Thursday.
On Friday, the UN’s Human Rights Office said it had received reports of other cases of sexual violence involving the DRC’s army and its allied forces.
“We are verifying reports that 52 women were raped by Congolese troops in South Kivu, including alleged reports of gangrape,” said Jeremy Laurence, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a statement Friday.
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Sources:
📰 CNN
📰 BBC
