New Mass Rape in Congo

Women were restrained with ropes or beaten unconscious when some 33 of them were raped in the latest mass assault in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The coordinated New Year's Day attack, in front of some of the women's children, involved several men in each assault, said Doctors Without Borders. All the women were treated at local hospitals the following days, and two severely injured—one beaten with a rock, the other shot in the chest—were transported to a more sophisticated care facility, reports the Guardian.

Rape is a frequent war weapon in eastern Congo, where some 15,000 victims—ranging in age from a month-old baby to a 110-year-old woman—were assaulted last year by members of the FDLR rebel group—led by perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide—along with Congolese Mai-Mai militia. Some 240 victims were raped in a single week last summer in the northern Congo. The UN has slammed security forces for failing to protect women.
(More rape stories.)