Rape War: The War against Women in the Congo

A production by BildManufaktur GmbH©
Stuttgart (Germany) 2007
In association with ARTE© and SWR©.

The Panzi Hospital is located in Bukavu, the capital of the Province of South Kivu. Here they treat seriously injured and traumatised women and girls. They are the victims of horrific rapes. Because in northeast Congo war is still going on. Marauding militias roam the inaccessible forests, killing, plundering and burning. Women and children are systematically raped and abused.

Susanne Babila, cameraman Jürgen Killenberger and sound engineer Felix Hugenschmidt have been accompanying some women for four weeks and have become witnesses of unimaginable human rights abuses.

Ndamosu MBuefuh is 70 years old. She has been raped several times, her husband and five children have been killed. Thirty-year-old Ntakobajira MBisimwa was held prisoner in a rebel camp as a sex slave. Eighteen-year-old Noella MMburugu had to endure this torture for three years. She gave birth to a son there. She called him "Amani", which means peace. Her tormentors took her child away from her and drove her away because she fell ill and could no longer work.