Rape in the context of war, is perceived as a particularly effective weapon of war and used to subdue, punish, or take revenge upon entire communities.
The effects of rape and mutilations are far-reaching. Community leaders in the DRC have noted that the frequent and extreme brutality committed with impunity during wave after wave of armed occupation has resulted in the disintegration of the moral and social fabric in many localities.

Attacks have comprised individual rapes, sexual abuse, gang rapes, mutilation of genitalia, and rape-shooting or rape-stabbing combinations, at times undertaken after family members have been tied up and forced to watch.
The perpetrators have come from among virtually all of the
armies, militias and gangs implicated in the conflicts, including local bands and police forces that attacked their own communities.

Social stigma has left large numbers of rape victims and children born of rape rejected by their families and communities. Many cases of HIV and other infections remain untested and untreated. Fear of going to fields and markets--sites where rapes often take place--has resulted in spiraling malnutrition and economic loss.

Widespread criminal impunity and inadequate local and regional governance leave communities without the means to reduce the violence.

Based on a three-week team assessment, this report addresses rape and associated violence against civilian women, men, girls, and boys that have been widely employed as weapons in the multiple regional and civil wars that have plagued the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).