Aid group says Congo had 25,000 victims of sexual violence last year

Associated Press

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Doctors Without Borders says that it treated more than 25,000 victims of sexual violence in the Congo last year, by far the highest level it has seen there and most of it in the east where armed groups vie for power. The aid group says the vast majority of victims — averaging more than two per hour — were treated in displacement camps near Goma, the capital of Congo’s eastern province of North Kivu. More than 120 armed groups are fighting there for power, land and valuable mineral resources, and they have been accused of mass killings, rapes and other human rights violations. The violence has displaced some 6 million people.