In eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, more than a year after the end of the war in the vast Central African country, rape continues to be widespread, steeping its victims in agony while their attackers almost always get off scot-free. Aid workers in Sud-Kivu province said in December that more than 8 000 rape cases had been reported there alone since the start of the war in 1998, or around 30 people every week.

Fear, rather than loyalty or ideology, is what keeps many young Rwandan rebels holed up in the bush in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to men who surrendered from the insurgency. ”If they catch you trying to leave they kill you or they beat you up until you’re maimed. We asked for leave to go to the market and then we ran away.”