'City of Joy' aims to help victims of mass rape

Published on Friday 4 February 2011 14:42

Democratic Republic of Congo's first rehabilitation centre for victims of sexual violence opened its doors yesterday, weeks after a new spate of mass rapes in its troubled east.

Mass rape has been a characteristic of the conflict in eastern Congo - a battle over ethnicity and resources that was in part triggered when millions of people, mostly Hutu, fled across the border after the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Although accurate figures are hard to come by, the United Nations estimates at least 160 women are being raped every week in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu.

The UN-funded "City of Joy" was launched in the eastern town of Bukavu by Eve Ensler, author of the hit play The Vagina Monologues, about female sexuality. President Joseph Kabila's wife Olive Lembe Kabila is also a backer of the centre.

"The opening of the City of Joy is the moment where women of the Congo turn their pain to power. Where they who have suffered so deeply, so invisibly, will claim their rights, their bodies and their future," Ms Ensler said at the opening ceremony.

The centre will offer therapy and training to about 180 women a year to help them rebuild their lives.

Last month more than 100 women, men and children were sexually abused in separate attacks carried out by the Congolese army and FDLR rebels in the South Kivu area.