The Worst Crime on the Planet

“The sexual violence in Congo is the worst in the world. The sheer numbers, the wholesale brutality, the culture of impunity - it’s appalling.” - John Holmes, United Nations under secretary general for humanitarian affairs.

Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist, cannot bear to listen to the stories his patients tell him anymore. Every day ten new women and girls who have been raped show up at his hospital. Many have been so brutally attacked that their reproductive and digestive systems are beyond repair. He performs as many as six rape-related surgeries a day. Bed after bed is filled with women lying on their backs, staring at the ceiling, with colostomy bags hanging next to them because of all the internal damage.

Honorata Barinjibanwa was kidnapped from her village in April and kept as a sex slave until August. Most of that time she was tied to a tree; she still has rope marks on her neck. The men would untie her for a few hours each day to gang-rape her. She is just 18 years old. And now she is pregnant.

Kasindi Wabulasa was raped in February by five men. They held an AK-47 rifle to her husband’s chest and made him watch, telling him that if he closed his eyes, they would shoot him. When they were finished they shot him anyway.

Read the full story from the New York Times...