Women in danger in the Congo - CNN

A new study finds startling numbers of women are victims of rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

 

But published after this story and the study that they reference, was an article by BBC News:

DR Congo rape study "questionable" 

A new study on rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo is based on out-of-date and questionable figures, a Swedish academic has told the BBC.

It concluded that 48 women and girls are raped every hour in DR Congo.

But Maria Eriksson Baaz says it is difficult to collect reliable data in DR Congo and women sometimes claim to be victims to get free health care.

She also questioned the links made between rising rape elsewhere in DR Congo and the conflict in the east.

Sexual violence has long been a dominant feature of the continuing unrest there.

The rape study was published last week in the American Journal of Public Health and found that 400,000 females aged 15-49 were raped over a 12-month period in 2006 and 2007.

[...]

The entire BBC News article can be found at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13448513

So what is the truth?

Are there women who are being taken advantage of by men in their country? - Yes
Is rape a problem in the DR Congo? - Yes

Isn't that is why institutions such as Congo Initiative and UCBC exist... To raise awareness of what's happening in the country? Yes. But also to offer healing, hope, welcoming and safety in a community of people and a new future to women who have suffered through some of the worst things imaginable.

Change.
It's not just about raising awareness of something terrible that happens too often to too many women, young and old. It's about gaining the tools necessary to combat ignorance, intolerance, hatred and bitterness, and to attain reconciliation. It's about not getting to the point where one joins the endless cycle of abuse that Congo seems trapped into repeating. Learning how to handle situations differently in the future.

The question remains, what do we do now? That is something that our students wrestle with as well.

UCBC offers quality professors, teachers, leadership, vision and education to men and women in eastern DR Congo. Maybe together with students, teachers and community leaders, we can challenge and change the system that is destroying the future of Congo's people.

More calls for the UN to withdraw peacekeepers from Congo...

DR Congo calls on UN to withdraw peacekeepers

(AFP) – 1 day ago

UNITED NATIONS — Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday made a new call for UN peacekeepers to withdraw, despite warnings from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that armed groups remain a significant threat there.

DR Congo's international cooperation minister Raymond Tshibanda told the UN Security Council that his government want an "orderly, progressive withdrawal" of UN troops from the giant central African country, where millions are said to have died in conflict in the past two decades.

The resource-rich country is to hold a key presidential election in November, amid fears of unrest.
[...]

The rest of the article can be viewed here.

Revamping the Congolese Railway System

So who will be going to Congo next?

DR Congo Launches $600 Million Program To Revamp Rail Network

5/12/2011 6:17 PM ET

(RTTNews) - The Democratic Republic of Congo launched a program worth $600 million on Thursday to revamp the country's aging and largely neglected railway network within a period of four years.

The project was launched at a ceremony held in capital Kinshasa. The main financiers for the project are China and the World Bank. The overhauling of the 435-mile-long rail network is mainly aimed at boosting agricultural and mining industries by improving transportation facilities.

Mines Minister Martin Kabwelulu who is also serving as interim transport minister said at the ceremony that the revamping of the railway system will help "growth in the mining sector, the development of isolated communities, and the fight against poverty."

While the World Bank has agreed to provide $218.8 million for the four-year project, China's contribution of $200 million will come from the "minerals-for-infrastructure" deal signed between the two nations in 2009. The remaining amount will be funded by the Congolese government.

World Bank's Africa Transport Program Coordinator Pierre Pozzo di Borgo said the joint financing of the project "will improve the efficiency of both our investment and their investment and it will ensure Congo gets the best value for its money."

The maintenance of the country's colonial-era rail system had been neglected in recent years, mainly due years of misrule and conflict. The new project includes replacing or repairing damaged rail tracks as well as purchase of new locomotives and wagons.

A part of the fund will be used to pay wages to nearly 12,000 employees of the national railway company SNCC who have not been paid for more than four years. Also, staff over retirement age will be given the option of retiring after they are paid pending salaries and and pension contributions settled.

The lack of proper roads in DR Congo has forced a vast majority of its population to depend on boats for transport across the country's numerous rivers and lakes. Revamping the country's rail system is expected to provide an alternate and cheap mode of transport for the country's impoverished population, most of whom cannot afford airfares.

by RTT Staff Writer

UN ‘Concerned’ - Voice of America

“Alexander Essome said MONUSCO has stepped up efforts to prevent future violence in North Kivu province.”
Really? I guess time will tell... Like it always does. 

UN ‘Concerned’ About Increasing Attacks in Eastern Congo 

Peter Clottey  May 10, 2011

Joseph Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (2010 file photo)

The spokesman for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) says his group is “profoundly concerned” about increasing attacks by armed groups in eastern Congo.

Alexander Essome said MONUSCO has stepped up efforts to prevent future violence in North Kivu province.

“In the last two months, we have had more than 25 attacks. In many instances, people’s [homes were] looted and monies stolen. So, we are obliged to increase many of our patrols in those areas so that we can then live up to the spirit of the mandate of the Security Council that requires us to protect the population in those areas,” said Essome.

His comments came after Leonard Mashako Mamba, Congo’s minister of university and higher education, reportedly escaped an attack by an armed group in the north Kivu town of Rutshuru.  His driver and his body guard were killed.

The increasing violence comes as Congo is compiling a voter list for the parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for November 28.

“We have to stamp out these sudden attacks from these armed groups in the area,” he said, “because eventually they will prevent the local population from coming out and registering to vote and by so doing, keep away people who can have a voice in [Congo’s] democratic process.”

Julien Paluku Kahongya, governor of North Kivu, has relocated his entire provincial government to Rutshuru from Goma, following the assaults from the armed groups, Essome said.

Both the government and MONUSCO blame rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) for the attacks in the North Kivu province.

The DRC’s government recently signed a memorandum of understanding with MONUSCO for it to provide support to the electoral commission organizing the vote.

Essome said MONUSCO is hopeful more Congolese will participate in the DRC’s fledgling democracy.

"Blood and Gold"

A friend shared this with me... Check it out:
Blood and Gold - A Foreign Policy photo essay:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/05/12/blood_and_gold?page=0,0 

 

Be sure to click through the slideshow... there are about 15 photos.