"Sous les volcans"

There seems to be no end in sight to the appalling violence against women in the Kivu region of eastern DRC. In North Kivu alone, there are 250 cases of rape reported each month and the unofficial figure could be much higher. Every hospital and health centre in both Kivus report cases of sexual violence on a daily basis, and the victims range from six months to 95 years of age. This is sexual violence in its most barbaric form, since rape is invariably accompanied by torture and mutilation leading some activists to describe what is happening to Congolese women as femicide. The trauma of these women is exacerbated by the fact that they are often rejected by their families and that perpetrators seldom brought to justice. All factions involved in the fighting in Kivu are accused of brutality against women though the majority of crimes are attributed to the Interhamwe militia, still active in Congo after fleeing Rwanda when the Rwandan Patriotic Front took control of the country and ended the genocide in 1994.

"Sous les volcans" talks to women of the Kivus, the victims and the activists in an attempt to break the silence about what is happening to women in eastern DRC. A documentary prepared and presented by Michael Gabriel Mudimbi of Contact FM.