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Rape has been used as a weapon in the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in unprecedented ways. Research into the phenomenon of war-rape is limited, particularly in this context. The aim of this study was to explore perceptions of local leaders in eastern DRC concerning rape and raped women in the war context. Local leaders were chosen for their ability to both reflect and influence their constituencies. Interviews were conducted with 10 local leaders and transcripts subjected to qualitative content analysis. The study suggests that mass raping and the methods of perpetration created a chaos effectively destroying communities and the entire society and that humanitarian aid was often inappropriate. Furthermore, an exclusive focus on raped women missed the extent of traumatisation entire communities suffered. More significantly, the lack of political will, corruption, greed and inappropriate aid creates a tangled web serving to intensify the war. This complexity has implications for humanitarian interventions including public health.

This study is part of an ethnography focusing on war rape in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where child soldiers are both victims and perpetrators of violence. Twelve ex-child soldier boys, aged thirteen to eighteen years, from a reintegration facility were interviewed about their soldiering experiences and their perspectives on sexual violence. Transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis. Conceptual frameworks of militarized masculine identity and gender-based violence guided the process. Results revealed the systematic and violent construction of children into soldiers, inculcating a "militarized masculinity"; a rigid set of stereotypical hypermasculinized behaviors promoting dominance by violating, sexually and otherwise, the subordinate "other." This was achieved through terrorizing/coercing, use of indigenous preparations, substance abuse, and forbidden reflection. This article presents a more contextualized complex view of the violent perpetrator whose behaviors are a manifestation of the modes and mechanisms in which society has constructed/reconstructed gender, ethnicity, and class, and the power dynamics therein.

Objective:  The purpose of this study was to explore and illuminate the perspectives and experiences of women of sexual violence perpetrated in the conflict, defined as a ‘new war’ in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.  ‘New wars’ indicative of the changing nature of warfare, target civilians and involve raping, looting and pillaging.

Design: The paper is based on eleven qualitative semi-structured interviews and four written narratives collected from women of reproductive age, recruited from a variety of organizations providing support after sexual violation. This study departs from a larger ethnographic project investigating the phenomenon of war-rape. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data through the theoretical lenses of structural violence and intersectionality.

Results: Women expressed total insecurity and a multitude of losses from bodily integrity, health and loss of family, life course possibilities, livelihoods and a sense of place/belonging; a profound dispossession of identity and marginalization. Pregnancies resulting from rape reinforced stigma and burdened the survivor with difficult decisions concerning raising a stigmatized child on the margins of society. Perpetrators of rape were most commonly identified as Interhamwes (Rwandan Hutu rebels) whose goal was to spread HIV, impregnate and claim Congolese women, thereby destroying families and society.

Conclusion:  Sexually violated women survivors of war experience profound losses. Congo’s conflict reflective of ‘new wars’ involving global, ethnic and gendered dimensions requires imperative critical reflection on how these local wars and subsequent human suffering are situated in a matrix of globalization processes enabled by transnational actors and embedded in structural violence.

This study is part of an ethnographic focus on the phenomena of war rape in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Its purpose was to explore and illuminate how women survivors of sexual violence navigated and negotiated “survive-ing” in the stigmatized margins of an already impoverished existence. The paper departs from a previous study where women expressed multiple losses and profound dispossession of identity with subsequent marginalization often with a child born of rape in tow.

The findings are based on eleven qualitative in-depth interviews with rural women of reproductive age recruited from a variety of organizations supporting women after sexual violation. Thematic analysis and Payne’s theoretical framework concerning sites of resilience guided the analysis. Results indicated how the women exhibited agency, proactive decisions and resilience in severely compromised environments embedded in a larger oppressive complexity. Their faith in God, limited health interventions that challenge cultural understandings around sexuality, indigenous healing, and strategic alliances, ie aid organizations or survival sex supported these women to manage their daily existence in the margins. These survival strategies are identified as sites of resilience and are vital contextual knowledge for planning effective interventions. The findings suggest that strengthening collaboration between existing networks such as the church, healthcare and indigenous healing practices would extend the reach of health services, offering more sustainable holistic care and in effect, better serve the needs of sexual violated individuals but as well the entire community, subjected to mass traumatization.