Kisangani, 4 December 2013 – The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, through its Public Information section, organized, from 25 to 30 November 2013, in Province Oriental’s Isangi and Yangambi territories, a sensitization campaign for preventing and combating sexual violence.

The campaign, which was conducted jointly with the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office, was part of the UN 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Discrimination and Violence against Women Campaign for 2013. It reached about 4,000 secondary school children, as well as members of civil society groups and of the Congolese National Police.

The most recent figures from the legal clinic of Yangambi and from the civil and military tribunals of the district show that sexual violence remains an issue of serious concern in this part of the D.R. Congo, and that most of the victims are minors.

“The influence of deep-rooted customs, the silence of most victims of sexual violence, the tendency to amicably settle rape cases, and ignorance of the law on sexual violence, are all factors that promote these types of violence in the district,” suggested Father André Timbiri, pastor of the Yangambi Sacré-Cœur parish and president of the civil society coalition of the Tshopo district.

In order to increase the ability of the participants to fight the scourge of sexual violence, the MONUSCO team explained the rationale behind the UN-established 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, the Congolese law against sexual violence and the penalties incurred by offenders, the principle of zero tolerance of amicable arrangements as a means of settling rape cases, as well as the behavior members of the population should adopt to avoid d HIV/AIDS, early marriage, and unwanted pregnancy.

In order to amplify this message, the MONUSCO team helped set up small groups of people whose role will be over the next several weeks to spread various messages in the neighborhoods, markets, schools and media outlets of Yangambi and Isangi, so as to help ensure the problem of sexual violence is eradicated in the district.

Codjo Houegniglo/MONUSCO