Living Through War: The Use of Rape Against Women in the Congo

Since 1997, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been ravaged by ethnic discord and brutal civil war, leading to the death of over three million people. Misery and ruin have infiltrated the lives of the Congolese people through dramatic economic decline, widespread malnutrition, lack of humanitarian aid, constant fighting, internal displacement, and the systematic targeting of its women and children by means of rape, torture, slavery, and forced combatant recruitment (Amnesty, 2004; WIN, 2000; Goodwin, 2004). Rape, torture, and mutilation have become the primary means of conquering and controlling the people of this country and results in the dehumanization, the loss of innocence, and the psychological damage of women. By applying a sociological perspective to the background and resulting consequences of a war-torn life in the DRC, the window into the personal experiences of women becomes the obvious connection between the Congo's conflicted past and a peaceful hope for the future.