Rape of the Congo: Understanding sexual violence in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Sara Meger

152 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Contemporary African Studies

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Gender, Security, and Conflict Political Conflict and Governance Peacebuilding and International Security

Abstract

Though the occurrence of rape in the conduct of war is by no means historically new, research into its causes and functions has only really begun in the past couple of decades. War rape is a difficult phenomenon about which to generalise, considering the variances in context and actors involved. This article, however, attempts to synthesise existing literature through the analysis of a case study that can enhance our understanding of rape as a weapon of war and the contextual conditions that facilitate its use. Applying this theoretical framework to the extreme war rape occurring in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this article offers insight into understanding the function of sexual violence in the ongoing conflict in the DRC. In particular, this article argues that the use of rape as a weapon in the Congo's bloody war must be understood in relation to both social constructs of masculinity and the politics of exploitation that have shaped much of the country's history.

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References

1976Against Our Will. Men, Women and Rape 1978Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape 2000Maneuvers 2000Maneuvers: the international politics of militarizing women's lives 2008Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe 2009Armed Groups and Sexual Violence: When Is Wartime Rape Rare?2009Why Do Soldiers Rape? Masculinity, Violence, and Sexuality in the Armed Forces in the Congo (DRC)1995Mass Rape: The War against Women in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

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2016Artisanal mining, conflict, and sexual violence in Eastern DRC 2020Gender differences in response to war-related trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder – a study among the Congolese refugees in Uganda 2011‘Women, Peace and Security’: Addressing Accountability for Wartime Sexual Violence 2012Rape and sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo: a case study of gender-based violence 2018The ‘war’/‘not-war’ divide: Domestic violence in the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative

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