When some people think of rape being used during wars they usually default to thinking that it is exclusively men who are the perpetrators. But the truth is something different. Very different. When research was done on conflict related violence in the Congo researchers found that women are not only the targets of sexual violence in war, they are also often the perpetrators as well. A study that was presented to the U.S. Africa Command found the following:
Her findings, from surveys done in 46 villages in South Kivu, North Kivu, and Ituri Distict, show:
- The rate of sexual violence is 40 percent among women and 23 percent among men.
- 20 percent of the population fought in the conflicts, 48 percent of which were female
- 2.1 million women and 1.3 million men have suffered sexual violence
- 1.3 percent of rapes among women were gang rapes
- 39 percent of female survivors reported female perpetrators; 15 percent of male survivors reported female perpetrators.
Women raping other women. An area that has little research, funding, or support systems for. This is yet another study that demonstrates one of the main themes of this site – people are people and each case is unique unto itself.
Links for this study:
http://www.africom.mil/getArticle.asp?art=5872&lang=0
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=186342
