INVESTIGATION OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN EASTERN DRC THEME: RAPE BY CIVILIAN PERPETRATORS While the majority of sexual violence survivors described their assailants as being soldiers, as being in military uniform or directly identifying them as belonging to a specific military group, 6% of sexual assaults were reportedly committed by civilians. Sexual violence perpetrated by civilians most often involved young women and was more likely to happen in the perpetrator’s home or while the victim was traveling to / from the market, school or a friend’s house. “I was walking along the road near the Kamaguana market when a boy from my neighborhood called out to me. I thought he wanted to tell me something since he was a brother of my community. I approached him and he immediately pushed me into the yard and closed the door behind me. There was a man behind the door and he beat me very badly. Then he raped me and since it was my first sexual encounter, he took my virginity. Since the rape, I have had irregular periods. I began to have my period in April between the 20 and 21st but I have not had it since then and now I am pregnant.” “I was at home when a neighborhood boy asked me to have sex with him. I refused so he took me by force and raped me. Since then, I have had abdominal pain.” “I was getting ready to go to the market in Muhanzi. A neighborhood boy called out to me saying that he wanted to buy bananas from me. I sold him the bananas but he made me take them to his house. Once in the house, he closed the door and started to intimidate me. He hit me and I fell to the floor. I fought him but he still raped me. After the rape I started to bleed and this is why I have come for a consultation here at Panzi Hospital. I needed sutures in my vagina because of a tear.” THEME: PREGNANCY RESULTING FROM RAPE For some women, sexual violence resulted in pregnancy and this seemed to be particularly the case following sexual slavery, where women were raped repeatedly over a period of time. The sense of shame appeared to be heightened in women who became pregnant as a result of the rape and married women seemed more likely to be abandoned if the rape resulted in a pregnancy. “When I was leaving school, I met four soldiers who took me to the forest and raped me. When I returned home I discovered that I was pregnant. I delivered a dead baby by C-section and several days later I found that I was involuntarily leaking urine.” “We were in our house. The soldiers captured us and immediately forced us to go to the forest. I spent four months there. When I finally returned home, I discovered I was pregnant. I gave birth to a boy at the hospital in Walungu.” “We were returning from the field when we met the assailants who took us as their ‘femmes’ for three weeks. We finally escaped but I discovered that I was pregnant. The 27