5,000 rapes in eastern DR Congo this year

Some 5,000 women have been raped this year in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern province of North Kivu as a new rebellion has sown fresh unrest in the conflict-prone region, a local hospital said on Thursday. ‘The number of rapes has risen dramatically: we have registered around 5,000 women raped since the start of the year in North Kivu. It’s very dramatic,’ said Justin Paluku, an obstetrician and gynaecologist at the Heal Africa hospital in Goma, the provincial capital. Renewed instability has engulfed the region since a group of soldiers mutinied from the army in April.