1,152 Congolese raped daily, study finds
DAKAR, Senegal — The central African nation of the Democratic Republic of Congo has been called the worst place on earth to be a woman. A study released yesterday by the American Journal of Public Health shows it is even worse than previously thought: 1,152 women are raped every day, a rate equal to 48 per hour.
That rate is equal to 420,480 rapes per year, 26 times more than the previous estimate of 16,000 rapes in a year reported by the United Nations.
Michelle Hindin, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University who specializes in gender-based violence, said the rate could be even higher. The source of the data, she noted, is a survey that was conducted through face-to-face interviews, and people are not always forthcoming about the violence they have suffered when talking to strangers.
I don’t really have anything to add; the situation in the DRC is just abominable.