Limited research on sexual violence against men in the DRC suggests issue is 'largely ignored'

IRIN reports on the issue of sexual violence against men as a "weapon of war" in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), writing, "Sexual violence against men, including rape, is under-reported, poorly addressed and has a severe impact on both men and their families, according to a presentation at the annual Sexual Violence and Research Initiative (SVRI), held in Cape Town, South Africa." The news service writes, "The eastern DRC makes up most of the available research on sexual violence during conflict, according to Claudia Moreno, coordinator of the World Health Organization's Department of Gender and Women."

"Jocelyn Kelly of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative at Harvard University, said the term 'sexual violence' in DRC had become synonymous with the rape of women by armed groups, leading programs to exclude female and male survivors of abuse and gender-based violence (GBV), and male survivors of conflict-related sexual violence," IRIN writes. The news service highlights the results of two small, qualitative studies that explore the issue of rape against males in the DRC (10/13).