Between July 30th and August 2nd, rebels consisting of members of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and Mai-Mai gang-raped 179 people in villages surrounding the mining town of Walikale, located in Congo’s North Kivu province. Upon arrival, rebels assured the villagers of their safety, saying that they just wanted rest and much-needed food, but when the rebels finally went back into the jungle, they had managed to terrorize an entire community by brutalizing men, women, and children.

This event is the perfect example of the practice of armed groups using rape as a weapon of war. According to reports, most women were raped by between two and six men, and many were raped in front of their husbands and children. The use of rape as a weapon of war is often strategic and systematic. Rape continues to terrorize people long after the initial crime, causing what some survivors call “a slow death.” Armed groups use rape as a tool to humiliate, dominate, instill fear, and forcibly disperse populations; rape destroys entire communities because women are considered the backbone of the community. Men often refuse to stay with women that have been raped, and the children survivors of sexual violence are left to raise alone suffer from a compromised well-being because of their mothers’ diminished societal status.

Since beginning work with SOS Femmes en Danger, I have been privileged to meet many of their beneficiaries, women who have survived what Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton called “evil at its basest form.” While speaking with SOS FED beneficiaries, I learned of horrific stories I had only previously read in newspapers and blogs similar to this one. In nearly all the interviews I conducted, beneficiaries told me that they appreciated the community they found at SOS FED more than anything. Such statements reminded me of the gravity of the work Marceline and Amisi do here, especially in light of another horrific news story about rape in the DRC.