INVESTIGATION OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN EASTERN DRC height of the “Second Congo War”, there were as many as 20 armed groups and it has previously been documented that “all warring parties” were known to rape civilian women.(42) Indeed, in the current study, women named a multitude of military groups as perpetrators. Specifically mentioned military affiliations included Interahamwe, Hutu soldiers, FARDC, Mai Mai, Nkunda soldiers, Congolese soldiers, Tutsi soldiers, Soldats de 106, Rwandan soldiers, FDD, RCD, Mudundu 40, Mutebutsi, and Rastas. There are several problems with reporting the military identities of perpetrators in this context. First, we cannot comment on the military affiliations of 66% of the assailants (42% nonspecified perpetrators and 24% “soldier or man in military uniform”). Because we cannot identify the military group for two thirds of the sexual assaults, we simply do not have enough data to draw conclusions about the relative roles of each of the military groups in perpetrating violence. Second, the ability of a sexual violence survivor to accurately identify her perpetrator as belonging to a specific military group is questionable. Women are often attacked at night in locations that are either dimly lit or without electricity altogether. Thus, many women are not able to clearly see the uniforms, insignia or other identifying characteristics that would allow them to confidently say that the perpetrator belonged to a particular armed group. Coupling this poor visibility with the fear and terror that must be experienced during a sexual assault and with the fear that must be experienced when your loved ones are in danger, we understand how easily identification errors might occur. Additionally, some women identified their perpetrators by the language the perpetrators spoke during the assault. Sometimes these were languages that the women did not speak or understand themselves. This too, is questionable as a means of identifying the perpetrator since the women may not have correctly identified the language and because speaking a particular language or dialect does not indicate a military allegiance. And finally, reporting the identities of military groups responsible for mass rape when those groups are still active, may place the women of South Kivu at risk of retaliatory attacks. For all of these reasons, we feel it most appropriate to report perpetrators as armed combatant, civilian, or not specified. PATTERNS OF MILITARY RAPE The predominance of military perpetration in the sexual violence epidemic of South Kivu has resulted in a characteristic pattern of rape. Women and girls of all ages, from toddlers to greatgrandmothers, were brutally attacked. Single, married and widowed women were similarly targeted for sexual violence. All ethnicities were affected by the rape (the ethnicities presented here represent the local demographics in Bukavu and in South Kivu Province). Essentially, no one was spared. The majority of women were attacked in their own homes and most attacks happened during the evenings and nights. This pattern is in contrast to that found in other recent conflicts in Africa, where rape is reported primarily when women go out in search of water or firewood, when they are farming their fields or when their village is attacked. One striking feature of rape in South Kivu is the high prevalence of gang rape, which was reported by almost 60% of all sexual violence survivors presenting to Panzi Hospital. Armed combatants were responsible for most of the gang rape with only 1% of such rapes reportedly committed by civilians (Figure 2). Overall the mean number of perpetrators was 2.5 with a 35