U.N. says 3-year-old rape victim dies in Congo
Pastor Dale Morgan
U.N. says 3-year-old rape victim dies in Congo*
06 Jun 2009 13:51:44 GMT
Source: Reuters
GENEVA, June 6 (Reuters) - A three-year-old girl has died after being
raped by a rebel fighter in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where
armed forces are committing increasing numbers of sexual attacks, a
United Nations spokeswoman said on Friday.
Three of the infant victim's sisters, aged 12, 14 and 17, were also
raped by combatants in the South Kivu region, said Elisabeth Byrs of the
U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
"This case represents the barbarity and the horror which is taking place
in South Kivu, and is only increasing," Byrs told a news conference in
Geneva, also describing acute risks to aid workers in the area where
Congolese and rebel forces are at war.
The top U.N. human rights official, High Commissioner Navi Pillay, said
this week that fighting in the eastern region near Rwanda was having
"tragic consequences" on civilian bystanders.
She also raised concerns about "horrific levels of sexual attacks" that
continue on the sidelines of that conflict between the military and
Democratic Forces of the Liberation of Rwanda, whose ranks including
leaders of Rwanda's 1994 genocide. (Reporting by Laura MacInnis: Editing
by Giles Elgood)