Trigger warning: sexual violence/rape
Abstract
The Democratic Republic of Congo is facing “ a war within a war”, in reference to the large number of rapes perpetrated during the ongoing conflict in the Kivus. The academic literature has widely documented how rape is used as a weapon of war by combatants against women in the country. Several factors can explain, but never justify, the use of rape as a weapon of war. The two prominent ones are poverty and patriarchy. However, some researchers have challenged the ‘rape as a weapon of war narrative’, warning that this account excludes the increasing number of rapes perpetrated by ‘ordinary citizens’.
Keywords: Rape, Weapon, Weaponisation, Violence against Women, DRC
By Apolline Rolland
Introduction
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has suffered a long-lasting conflict since it gained its independence from Belgium in 1960. [1] The first (1996-1997) and second (1998-2003) Congolese wars contributed to the collapse of the economy consequentially leading to unemployment, destroying the country’s infrastructure and forcing population displacements. Since 2004, a continuous war has been waged in the Kivus, the eastern part of the country. The armed conflicts have each led to a new wave of sexual violence; today, the DRC has been stigmatised as the “rape capital of the world” with experts describing a “rape epidemic”. [2] Human Rights Watch has deplored a “war within a war”, referring to a large number of rapes and sexual violence against women. [3]
Rape as a weapon of war
The high number of rapes in the DRC is part of an overall high level of violence in the country. Women are the first victims of these abuses, but men are also affected. [4] In 2000, gynaecologist Dr Denis Mukwege, internationally recognised as “the man who fixes women” for his commitment to victims of genital mutilation, began to notice the unusual and extreme violence of the acts perpetrated on the bodies of his patients who had been raped. [5] These were serious injuries indicating that women had been forced into specific positions and that tools had been used to deliberately mutilate their bodies. [6]
The age of victims of sexual violence varies between four months and 84 years old. [7] Researcher Carly Brown lists four different types of rapes: ‘individual rape’, ‘gang rape’, ‘rape in which victims are forced to rape each other,’ and ‘rape with the insertion of objects into the victims' genitals’. [8] These rapes have often resulted in the death of the victims. [9] Rape investigations in the Kivus have reportedly shown that common criminals, members of armed groups and state actors sexually abuse civilians, thus including the people who are supposed to protect the population. [10] [11] Hereafter, wartime rape refers to rapes perpetrated by combatants - armed groups members and soldiers.
There are several factors that can explain, but never justify, the high number of rapes in the DRC, the two most prominent ones being poverty and patriarchy.
With regards to poverty, the continuous war has led to economic desperation, largely motivating sexual violence in the country. During times of war, women become the breadwinners of the household, making them more vulnerable. They become targets for looting and there is a higher risk of exposure to sexual violence. Combatants, therefore, rape women for economic gain, stealing from them in order to survive. [12] They also rape women out of frustration and for their own personal pleasure, scarring the women for life. [13]
Concerning the patriarchy, women are often seen as subordinate to men in the DRC. Hence, rape reflects the power dynamics between men and women in Congolese society, and women bodies represent another space where men can exercise their power. As is usually the case in contexts of war, women are seen as spoils of war, leading them to be dehumanised and regarded as commodities. Rape is a means for combatants to maintain control over territories and to exert their power over other men by abusing their wives. [14] The combatants’ message is clear: the husbands of these women were not strong enough to protect them. [15] Married women who have been raped are left in an appalling mental and physical state and without a support system, as their husbands and families frequently guilt, shame and exclude them for the sexual violence they have suffered. [16] If these women were not married, they become unmarriable in a society where marriage is one of the main means of gaining status. Besides, genital mutilation and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases can lead to the sterilisation of women. Rape is therefore used for ethnic cleansing, as it prevents women from having children and undermines the longevity of families and communities. [17]
Rape is used to instil fear in the population, to stigmatise and hurt women, humiliate men, and destroy the social fabric of families and communities. [18] When rape victims give birth to children, these children often have to fend for themselves, as cohabitation can be difficult for their traumatised mothers. [19]
A rising number of rapes by ‘ordinary citizens’
Some researchers and experts have warned against a so-called ‘rape as a weapon of war narrative’ in the DRC. They rightly argue that rape is not only perpetrated by combatants and that there has been a dramatic rise of rapes by ‘ordinary citizens’ since 2011. In fact, in 2013, more than 77% of recorded sexual violence had been committed by civilians. [20] The ‘rape as a weapon of war narrative’ therefore conceals domestic violence, as well as rapes perpetrated by neighbours and other non-combatants, which are indeed very frequent. Journalist Lauren Wolfe argues that the war rhetoric has been used to mask the ‘epidemic of rape’ by ordinary citizens, thus failing to address the root causes of this violence and rendering the phenomenon almost acceptable, as ‘part of the war’. [21] Scholars Maria Eriksson Baaz and Maria Stern have highlighted the complexity of violence in the DRC, fearing that sexual violence would overshadow other types of violence. They also question the strategic character of wartime rape, arguing that it does not necessarily aim for military and political gains. Additionally, they fear a ‘commercialisation of rape’ in which the word ‘rape’ would become a keyword for income-generation strategies. [22]
These are important points to consider, but whether or not someone chooses to use the ‘rape as a weapon of war narrative’ to analyse the high number of rapes in the country, the outcome is the same: women's bodies in the DRC are being instrumentalised as part of the long-lasting conflict. Even if rape by ordinary citizens is seen as a goal in itself and a private matter, it remains an issue of power dynamics. It is a political matter because it continues to lead to the social exclusion of women, the lifelong scarring of their bodies and minds while not offering enough opportunities to access adequate healthcare. [23] When listening to the victims in the country, it becomes clear that, for them, rape is not only a weapon of war but the war itself. [24]
References
[1] Brown, C (2012) ‘Rape as a weapon of war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,’ Torture, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 24-37.
[2] Brown, p. 24.
[3] Human Rights Watch (2002), ‘The War within the War: Sexual Violence against Women and Girls in Eastern Congo,’ [online] United States of America: Human Rights Watch, pp. 1-118.
[4] Slegh, H, Barker, G and R Levtov, ‘Gender Relations, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and the Effects of Conflict on Women and Men in North Kivu, Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo: Results from the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES),’ [online] Washington, DC and Capetown, South Africa: Promundo-US and Sonke Gender Justice, pp. 68-73.
[5] Braeckman, C (2015) “Le viol au Kivu, partie intégrante de l’entreprise d’extermiantion,” in Collectif, ed., Le viol, une arme de terreur: dans le sillage du combat du Docteur Mukwege, Mardaga, pp. 39-68.
[6] Braeckman, p. 52.
[7] Brown, p. 27.
[8] Brown, p. 27-28.
[9] Human Rights Watch, p. 51.
[10] Maedl, A (2011) ‘Rape as Weapon of War in the Eastern DRC? The Victims' Perspective,’ Human Rights Quaterly, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 128-147.
[11] Human Rights Watch, p. 80.
[12] Brown, p. 29.
[13] Stark, L and Mike Wessells (2012) ‘Sexual violence as a weapon of war,’ JAMA, Vol. 308, No. 7677, pp. 677-678.
[14] Human Rights Watch, p. 38.
[15] Stark and Wessels, p. 678.
[16] Brown, p. 35.
[17] Moufflet, V (2008) ‘Le paradigme du viol comme arme de guerre à l’est de la République Démocratique du Congo,’ Afrique contemporaine, Vol. 3, No. 227, pp. 119-133.
[18] Brown, p. 30.
[19] Braeckman, p. 50.
[20] Wolfe, L (2014) ‘Unarmed and dangerous,’ [online] available from: https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/03/07/unarmed-and-dangerous/, accessed on 15th February 2021.
[21] Wolfe, 2014.
[22] Baaz, M E and Maria Stern (2013) “Rape as a weapon of war?”, in Maria Eriksson Baaz and Maria Stern, eds., Sexual Violence as Weapon of War?: Perceptions, Prezscriptions, Problems in the Congo and Beyond, Zed Books, pp. 42-63.
[23] Moufflet, p. 129.
[24] Maedl, p. 146.