Congo update
Remember last Friday when we carried that harrowing piece from Karen Allen about conditions for women in Eastern Congo? I certainly found it incredibly moving and horrifying. So did you, looking at the comments on the blog. Many of you got in touch to ask for more information.
if you missed it, you can hear her report again here
Karen sent PM this in response to your comments:
It's always a gamble reporting these kinds of stories in such graphic detail, but I think you cannot stray away from the facts and "sanitise" these atrocities.Rape is never acceptable but it is the extreme lengths that armed groups go to punish, maim and destroy entire communities, which makes this story so shocking. As one person on the blog pointed out, this behaviour is "not new", it's just that so much of it has gone unreported. I've seen a lot of broken bodies in my time as a journalist but this really did push the limit.
For me the enduring memory of my time spent at Panzi hospital was the silence of women, in stark beds lined up along the ward, almost resigned to their fate. As Dr Dennis Mkwege said to me "the unacceptable has become accepted".
He gets a lot of people like me coming to see him, but there's very little decisive action that's taken to change the situation. Of course groups like Human Rights Watch are trying to lobby for change but the immediate needs of these women are not always met. Some people have asked how they can support the hospital. Here's the if you want to contact it directly. Bear in mind that although the website is in English, the hospital's working language is French.
RSS feed
Email us
Listen to PM
Thank you, Karen, for the report. Yes, it was harrowing to hear, but I think we needed to hear it to understand the horrors that are still being perpetrated by people. If we don't know these things happen, then we can't fight against them.
Thank you, Karen, and thank you, Sequin, for this post. The link is particularly welcome.