By Lee Ann De Reus/Guest Blogger - April 23, 2013
In August 2010, reports began trickling out of Democratic Republic of Congo about another tragic episode of mass sexualized violence perpetrated by rebel troops over four days in the eastern town of Luvungi. The International Medical Corps, or IMC, an American aid group, was first on the scene to provide help and assessment. Their data informed reports by UN Peacekeeping that indicated that there were 37 victims; months later, an official UN document stated that 387 civilians had been raped.
But in a recent issue of Foreign Policy, journalist Laura Heaton challenged those figures, suggesting that the numbers were inflated and that rape receives more international aid and consideration than other pressing humanitarian issues in DRC. Two IMC aid workers who were at Luvungi at the time, Micah Williams and Will Cragin, responded. In a later Foreign Policy article, they disputed Heaton’s claims of misrepresentation and the privileging of sexualized violence by the global aid community.
While we will never know exactly what transpired at Luvungi, these disparate perspectives and the controversy over whether Heaton’s argument is valid highlight the need for candid conversation about Congo.
Read the full blog post.