New | Rape of babies, children on the rise in Democratic Republic of Congo: expert

Rapes of young children and even babies have surfaced in the Democratic Republic of Congo, further worsening the sexual violence ravaging the country like a “cancer,” a global expert on treating gang rape victims said.

Dr Denis Mukwege, who in November received the European Parliament’s Sakharov rights prize, said such atrocities began to surface around a year and half ago, with one recent case involving a girl of around 15 months old.

“How can someone kidnap a child at night and bring her in the bush to rape her?” Mukwege said from his office at a hospital in Panzi, outside the city of Bukavu in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a region wracked by years of violence.

He said 30 children had been raped in that manner in the nearby village of Kavumu.

“The condition of the babies who arrive to us like that at the hospital is dramatic. These are things that are completely new.”

Armed groups vying for control of the region’s vast mineral wealth often use mass rape to terrorise the local population.