Rice to head to Africa to help Congo tackle rebels


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet with the leaders of Democratic Congo and its neighbors next week to try to forge a common policy against rebel armies in the strife-torn African region, a senior diplomat said on Friday.

Rice will be in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, on December 5 to join leaders from the African Great Lakes region -- Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda -- in talks about confidence-building and joint security, Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer told reporters.

The focus of talks will be to develop common strategies to deal with "negative forces" including the FDLR (Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda), made up of key figures in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, as well as the Lord's Resistance Army and renegade Tutsi Gen. Laurent Nkunda, Frazer said.

Those forces have been fighting over territory and resources in lawless eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a conflict that has embroiled neighbors of the vast central African country formerly called Zaire.

Congo's President Joseph Kabila met President George W. Bush in Washington last month and appealed for U.S. help in trying to stabilize his country. Kabila has been battling to forcibly disarm soldiers in North Kivu province in the east, loyal to Nkunda.

Frazer said Washington backed Kabila's efforts and recognized his need to assert sovereignty over his territory. But to avoid further bloodshed, the United States was urging dialogue and offers of asylum for Nkunda.

"We've been urging Nkunda (and) the government of Kabila to try to end this through peaceful means and I think the best way is for Nkunda to go into exile," she said.

"He hasn't been willing to do that up to this point, so it may be necessary for President Kabila to bring greater pressure on him including military pressure, but that's a problem for the civilian population," Frazer added.

The conflict in the eastern province reflects the political and ethnic tensions behind Congo's 1998-2003 war in which six neighboring countries, including Rwanda, invaded Congo to plunder its vast mineral wealth.

On Rice's third trip to sub-Saharan Africa since becoming secretary of state in 2005, Rice will also discuss conflicts in Somalia and Sudan with African Union members, the United Nations and east African ministers, said Frazer.

In addition, the top U.S. diplomat will during her two-day stay hold talks with the leaders of Ethiopia, which cooperates closely with the United States on counter-terrorism issues and efforts to counter HIV/AIDS.

News | Africa - Reuters.com

East Congo violence fuels rape spree

By Kari Barber
Thu Jan 3, 4:36 AM ET



GOMA, Congo (Reuters) - Intense fighting between government and militia forces in eastern Congo has led to a surge in rape by fighters from all sides, women and doctors say.

Renewed hostilities between the army and troops loyal to renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda have stoked a volatile crucible of violence in Congo's North Kivu province, where traditional Mai Mai fighters and Rwandan Hutu militia also roam.

"I was leaving the market and I ran into FDLR on the road. They robbed me of everything and then four men raped me," Francoise Mwamasirika, a 45-year-old mother said of Rwandan Hutu rebels who include leaders of Rwanda's 1994 genocide against Tutsis.

Mwamasirika was stunned and barely able to speak when she arrived at a hospital in the South Kivu town of Minova.

"I won't go back," she said.

Sexual violence has escalated as hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee the safety of their homes -- around 400,000 people since August, when Nkunda quit a peace deal, bringing North Kivu's displaced population to 800,000.

Congo's government has called a peace summit for Sunday, but there is little optimism the chronic fighting will end soon.

Christophe Kimona, a surgeon at Goma's Heal Africa hospital, repairs the torn and damaged genitals of rape victims. Many can no longer control urination without surgery.

"The number of women we are seeing who have been raped is going up. We see an average of three or four rapes each day," Kimona said. "Those are just the ones who arrive at the hospital, we don't know how many are too ashamed to come."

CHILDREN IN DANGER

Most rape victims say their attackers were armed groups of rebels or government soldiers.

But Kimona said as rape becomes so common with the conflict, more civilians are committing rapes too, and the victims are often children.

Faura Ngabu Noela holds her 11-month-old daughter Chaunce close on her lap.

Villagers found Chaunce covered in grass, dirt and blood after she was raped by a 22-year-old man in her village, Noela said.

"I took her to the local hospital for surgery to repair her torn vagina, but it became infected and I had to bring her to Goma to have another operation and to heal that infection."

Now Noela says she is eager to go home.

"I just want to return to my other children because with the war, I'm not sure they are safe," Noela said.

There are laws in place to try rapists but victims often have little faith in the judicial system, said Marie-Antoinette Okimba, a senior field officer with U.N. refugee agency UNHCR.

"Many believe there is nothing that can be done -- especially if they were raped by military," Okimba said.

Okimba says some women are raped on the outskirts of refugee camps when they go looking for firewood.

Dr. Kimona says while he can repair many of the women physically, as long as the war continues, the women have little protection.

"We take care of them, but then you have people who leave and are raped again because society is not safe," Kimona said.

(Editing by Alistair Thomson and Giles Elgood)

East Congo violence fuels rape spree - Yahoo! News