Beni, 25 June 2011 – The United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) lent its support to the High Court of Goma to set up a mobile court in Kasindi, a town in Nord-Kivu province, at the border with Uganda. The five-day trial opened on 23 June 2011.

This activity is part of MONUSCO'S legal assistance to the DRC's judiciary system pursuant to the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program of the Canadian International Development Agency (ACDI).

The objective of the mobile court is to make justice available at the grassroots' level, and make it known to the public that there are judiciary sanctions for every act of sexual violence committed.

Altogether, twenty nine cases of sexual violence including 13 defendants will be reviewed during the mobile court trial. Other mobile court trials are scheduled for the following week, in Oicha, a town 30 km north-east of Beni.

Moussa Demba Diallo/ MONUSCO