Thirty-Three Women Raped in Congo

The United Nations has called the Democratic Republic of Congo the "rape capital of the world," and with good reason: Doctors Without Borders reported that 33 women were raped on New Year's Day by as many as four men at once. "Women had been restrained with ropes or beaten unconscious with the butt of a gun before being assaulted, some in front of their children," said a Doctors Without Borders official. The rapes occurred in Fizi, South Kivu, the eastern region of the war-ravaged country. Rape has been used in Congo as a weapon of war in the past: According to the U.N., 15,000 women were rape victims in 2009.