Sexual Violence Against Men in the Democratic Republic of Congos Armed Conflict:

A Case Study

Rape and sexual violence are not new features of armed conflict in sub-Saharan Africa,
and indeed have been part of armed conflicts worldwide for some time. However, only recently
has the international community begun to address them seriously, and sexual violence was
finally deemed a war crime and crime against humanity in the 1990s. Since then, war criminals
from Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone have been prosecuted and convicted for
committing or condoning rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence in armed
conflict.
Both historically and in this context, discussions about sexual violence have focused on it
as a form of violence against women. This is understandable, given that sexual violence and the
fear of it affect virtually all women on a daily basis. Less examined is the phenomenon of sexual
violence against men, especially in armed conflict. Male survivors are less likely to come
forward, to report or share their experience, and fewer resources than the already meager amount
for women survivors are devoted to working with male survivors.
In addition to this lack of awareness and resources, there is also a lack of scholarship
about how and why sexual violence against men happens in armed conflict, as well as its scope.
There are some theories, a few articles, but very little that is comprehensive. Further
complicating this issue, the case of sexual violence against men in the Democratic Republic of
Congos (DRC) armed conflict defies many of the existing theories. This paper seeks to
document what is known about male rape in the DRCs armed conflict; how it is different and
consistent with the history of male rape in armed conflict generally, and rape of women in the

DRC specifically; and finally attempts to explain why it is happening in the DRC today. I will
then offer suggestions for how to address male rape in the DRCs armed conflict.

A note on language
Sexual violence will be used throughout this paper as a blanket term to cover a wide
variety of atrocities committed against both men and women. Rape will be referred to most
often, but the other focus of the paper will be sexual torture; they will be addressed together at
some points, and separately at others. At various points I will list examples of the latter as they
are relevant to specific points, but generally as a term it will refer to a variety of other types of
sexual violence that are often associated with torture as opposed to sexual assault because they
bear such little similarity to a sex act, such a castration or genital mutilation. Rape will
sometimes fall under that distinction, because I would argue rape is also a form of torture, but
because of its commonality and specificity, and the different motivations behind different forms
of violence, I will generally use it separately.

A Hidden History
Sexual violence in armed conflict has been occurring for many hundreds of years, and is
documented in sources dating back to the Bible and ancient Greece. While the reasons for rape in
general are well known (one individual or group exercising power and control to dominate
another individual or group), there are additional factors in armed conflict that do not necessarily
relate to peacetime rape. One example is the concept of capturing and attacking women as booty,
or the spoils of war. Though Herbst does not refer to men or women specifically, he notes that in
pre-colonial times in Africa, Warfare tended to be concentrated on seizing booty since it was

hard to hold onto territory. As most farmers had nothing to seize, the most valuable treasure was
slaves.1
Asma Abdel Halim attributes this to a different source, at least in Sudan: The idea that
women are booty and, as such, are rightfully owned by those who capture them, stems from
centuries-old Sharia law regarding slavery and war booty.2 She also recounts oral history of the
Mahdist civil war in Sudan where warriors raped women as war booty. 3
Vikman goes in depth on the historical context, looking at rape used in ancient Hebrew,
Roman and Greek societies. From Moses ordering soldiers that all the young girls who have not
known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves,4 to Roman soldiers defil[ing]
matrons, maidens and free-born boys,5 Vikman focuses on how rape was historically seen as
almost expected of conquering troops, along with enslaving members of the defeated population
(primarily the women; men were usually just killed), and how Rape of bodies comes to
symbolise rape of cities, of a population as a whole.6 However, other than the above Roman
reference, there are only two other examples cited of men or boys being raped or taken as slaves,
both specific to the Romans and both, as above, referring to boys or youth rather than men.
Relating more specifically to men, there is a history of male rape following armed
conflict as a way to reinforce domination over a conquered foe. Singh quotes Dynes as noting
The rape of a defeated male enemy was considered the special right of the victorious soldier in
some societies and was a signal of the totality of the defeat. There was a widespread belief that a
male who was sexually penetrated, even if it was by forced sexual assault, thus lost his manhood
1

Herbst, Jeffrey. States and Power in Africa. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2000. p. 42.
Abdel Halim, Asma. Attack with a Friendly Weapon. In Turshen, Meredeth and Clotilde Twagiramariya. What
Women Do in Wartime. Zed Books, London, 1998. p. 93.
3
Abdel Halim, p. 95.
4
Vikman, Elisabeth. Ancient Origins: Sexual Violence in Warfare, Part I. Anthropology & Medicine
Vol. 12, No. 1. April 2005. p. 23. Hereinafter Vikman 1
5
Vikman 1, p. 27.
6
Vikman 1, p. 30.
2

and could no longer be a warrior or a ruler.7 There is other sexual violence in history as well:
Greek boys being castrated by victorious Persians,8 for instance.

Rape in the DRC

The history of mass sexual violence in the DRC goes back at least to the colonial era.
Historian Adam Hochschild writes
From 1885 to 1908, this territory was the personally owned colony of King Leopold II of
Belgium.His private army of black conscript soldiers under white officers would march
into a village and hold the women hostage, to force the men to go into the rain forest for
weeks at a time to harvest lucrative wild rubber. The women taken during the last
raid...are causing me no end of trouble, a Belgian officer named Georges Bricusse wrote
in his diary on November 22, 1895. All the soldiers want one. The sentries who are
supposed to watch them unchain the prettiest ones and rape them.9
More recently, the Democratic Republic of Congo has been in the midst of varying
degrees of instability since 1960, and the most recent iteration began in 1994 as Rwandan Hutu
genocidaires fled the invading Rwandan Patriotic Front after committing genocide and
established massive refugee camps along the DRC-Rwanda border. Then-dictator Mobutu Sese
Seko allowed them to stay, and as a result Rwanda and Uganda supported Laurent Kabilas 1997
takeover of the country. A year later Kabila fell out with his backers and Rwandan troops
invaded the eastern Congo and began fighting alongside local Tutsi (known as Banyamulenge in
the DRC) rebels. Other countries invaded, either on their own or at Kabilas invitation, and no
degree of comprehensive peace was attained until almost 2003. Today, militia activity in the
eastern DRC has decreased significantly but is not fully under control in the region this paper
will primarily address: the Ituri and North and South Kivu provinces along the DRCs eastern
border.
7

Singh, D. Male Rape: A Real Crime with Real Victims. Acta Criminologica. Vol. 17, No. 1. 2004. p. 129.
Vikman 1, p. 25.
9
Hochschild, Adam. Rape of the Congo. The New York Review of Books. August 13, 2009. Accessed at
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22956
8

Sexual violence committed against women by warring parties in the DRC includes gang
rape, multiple instances of rape, rape with foreign objects, rape of girls as young as five years
old, forced marriage, sexual slavery, sexual torture and sexual enslavement, among other
things.10 Womens genitals were mutilated and they were shot or otherwise attacked in the
vagina.11 Another report documents rapes committed against children as young as three.12
Atrocities have been committed by at least 10 separate warring groups, including the current and
former iterations of the official army of the DRC (FARDC).13 While the situation in the eastern
DRC is considerably more stable todaytwo Congolese warlords are even in custody of the
International Criminal Court for overseeing rape and sexual slavery as war crimes and crimes
against humanitymilitia groups are still active and there remains limited accountability and
control over the FARDC.
The data on sexual violence against men in this context remains extremely limited. Most
of the major reports compiled by groups like Human Rights Watch and the Harvard
Humanitarian Initiative make no specific mention of male rape, or devote at most a few
paragraphs to it. The only three mainstream sources with original reporting I found are a New
York Times story14, an AFP-TV report15, and an article on afrik.com16, and the picture they paint
is understandably incomplete. There is little indication of who is committing most of the rapes,
and almost nothing approaching an estimate of the number of incidents, other than noting at an
10

The War Within the War: Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls in Eastern Congo. Human Rights Watch
report, June 2002.
11
The War Within the War, p. 54.
12
Seeking Justice: The Prosecution of Sexual Violence in the Congo War. Human Rights Watch report, March 2005,
p. 10.
13
The War Within the War and Seeking Justice.
14
Gettleman, Jeffrey. Symbol of Unhealed Congo: Male Rape Victims. The New York Times. August 4, 2009.
Accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/world/africa/05congo.html.
15
Congos male rape victims speak out. AFP TV World. Accessed at
http://www.zimbio.com/watch/5hu6l650i80/Congo+male+rape+victims+speak+out/AFP+TV+World
16
Dassi, Ren. Men on Men rape cases in DR Congo: The ordeal of bush wives. Afrik.com. August 13, 2009.
Accessed at http://en.afrik.com/article16039.html.

American Bar Association legal clinic in Goma, North Kivu, 10 percent of their cases in June
2009 were men;17 and more than 20 percent of men referred to the Medical Foundation between
January 1, 1997, and June 30, 1998, from Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo reported
having been raped.18 There is also only scarce information about the rape survivors (some are
pygmies), and virtually nothing about motivation for the attacks. Most of the reported rapes are
committed by multiple assailants and involve the use of a weapon, which is also the case for
many rapes of women.

Sexual Violence Against Men in Armed ConflictSimilarities and Differences

Despite the meager historical record and scant details from the present, the 20th and early
21st centuries provide the largest number of documented and studied instances of male rape and
sexual violence against men in armed conflict. Armed conflict will necessarily be defined
somewhat loosely. Some of the documented instances occurred in full-blown wars, others in
military dictatorships, and still others in areas that some consider post-conflict, but are still
plagued by regular violence and high instability. For the purposes of comparison this paper will
discuss many of these, and this section will examine the different circumstances in which sexual
violence against men occurs in armed conflict and the dynamics surrounding those
circumstances.

Types of violence
Low levels of reporting among male survivors in the DRC mean that little is known about
the type of assaults many of them suffered. Most reports refer, directly or indirectly, to anal
17

Gettleman.
Peel, Michael. Men as Perpetrators and Victims. In Peel, Michael, ed. Rape as a Method of Torture. Medical
Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. 2004. p. 64.
18

penetration with a penis, but other forms of sexual torture are increasingly common. Gettleman
refers to two men whose penises were cinched with rope died a few days later because they
were too embarrassed to seek help. Castrations also seem to be increasing, with more butchered
men showing up at major hospitals. Another man also had his left leg crushed during his rape.19
A 13-year-old girl who was abducted by the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of the Congo
(FPLC; it is the militant wing of the Union of Congolese Patriots, or UPC, and active in Ituri
province), was made to participate in an attack on Largu, a Lendu village north of Bunia, in the
course of which she was ordered to tie the testicles of a Lendu prisoner with a wire. The prisoner
died as a result of the maltreatment.20 Another report recounts forced nudity, molestation and
rape by members of the UPC.21
Nearly all of the documented cases in the DRC involved multiple perpetrators, often three
or more, and the survivor was usually assaulted at knife or gun point. This is consistent with
many instances of male rape in non-conflict settings; Scarces review of studies on male rape in
multiple settings found that anywhere from 11.3 to 52.6 percent involved multiple assailants, and
between 1.9 and 57.9 percent involved a weapon.22
Many other studies of male rape in armed conflict document an especially large number
of cases of sexual torture and sexual assault not fitting a conventional definition of rape
(penetration by a penis). During the Balkan wars, for instance, men captured by Serb militants
suffered rape, deviant sexual acts, total and partial castrations, injuries to the testes with blunt
objects, and a combination of other injuries; torture of Croatian and Bosnian Muslim men

19

Gettleman.
Glassborow, Katy. Call for Lubanga Charges to Cover Rape. Institute for War and Peace Reporting. May 12,
2008. Accessed at http://www.iwpr.net/?p=acr&s=f&o=344590&apc_state=henh.
21
Sivakumaran, Sandesh. Sexual Violence Against Men in Armed Conflict. European Journal of International Law,
Vol. 18, No. 2. 2007. p. 269. Hereinafter Sivakumaran 2.
22
Scarce, Michael. Male on Male Rape. Insight Books, New York, 1997. p. 15.
20

included castration, genital beatings, and electroshock.23 Zawati also notes systematic rape
and sexual torture of both Iraqi women and men24 by American forces at the Abu Ghraib
detention facility in Iraq, pictures of which brought the issue directly into the public
consciousness. Oosterhoff et al note a variety of studies of sexual torture of political prisoners
from nations with military dictatorships or other oppressive regimes including Greece and Chile;
and An extensive study of 434 male political prisoners in El Salvador found that 76% reported
being subjected to at least one form of sexual torture.25 Stemple also includes forced nudity,
sexual threats, taunting, and forcing prisoners to perform sex acts on one another.26 Rape or
sexual assault and sexual torture are often differentiated in the studies, and this is a potentially
salient issue I will revisit later in this paper.
There are also a few documented instances of women raping men; Amnesty International
notes a male civilian who was raped at knifepoint by a female Mai-mai (a loose-knit collection of
militia groups in the eastern DRC) rebel,27 and Human Rights Watch described cases of female
rebels in Sierra Leone assaulting male civilians and conscripts.28

Perpetrators and locations of violence

All of the published reports about male rape in the DRC reference non-institutional
settings of the assaults: the survivors hut or cassava patch,29 walking home,30 or in front
23

Zawati, Hilmi. Impunity or immunity: wartime male rape and sexual torture as a crime against humanity.
Torture. Vol. 17, No. 1. 2007. p. 34.
24
Zawati, p. 35.
25
Oosterhoff, Pauline et al. Sexual Torture of Men in Croatia and Other Conflict Situations: An Open Secret.
Reproductive Health Matters. Vol. 12, No. 23. May 2004. pp. 68-9.
26
Stemple, Lara. Male Rape and Human Rights. Hastings Law Journal. February 2009. Vol. 60, No. 3. pp. 61213.
27
North Kivu: No End to War on Women and Children. Amnesty International. September 26, 2008. Accessed at
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR62/005/2008/en.
28
Well kill you if you cry. Sexual Violence in the Sierra Leone Conflict. Human Rights Watch. January 2003. p.
42.
29
Gettleman.
30
AFP-TV.

of his wife and children.31 There is often little or no indication either as to who the perpetrators
were. Some articles suggest that the perpetrators were members of one of the many armies or
militias active in the eastern DRC, whose sexual violence against women is well documented,
but determining exactly who is often virtually impossible. An ongoing process of integrating
rebel groups into the FARDC, rearranging existing brigades for a variety of reasons and militias
splintering, dissolving, and reconstituting often make it difficult to determine which armed
groups are even in existence, much less who is a member of which. In a Human Rights Watch
report documenting abuses against women by the FARDCs 14th brigade, their taxonomy was
Soldiers were identified as members of the 14th brigade because they wore purple epaulettes,
the color designated for members of the 14th brigade, because they lived at a military camp
where the soldiers of the 14th brigade were based, or because their superiors or peers identified
them as such.32 While perhaps overly broad, this is often the most detail that can be found.
The settings and perpetrators of many other types of male rape in armed conflict are often
less ambiguous, however. Stemple notes that In armed conflict, perpetrators are more likely to
be captors from opposition forces.33 The Abu Ghraib assaults, for instance, occurred in official
US military installations and were perpetrated by (in many cases uniformed) US military
personnel and contractors. Oosterhoff notes Torture might take place in a field, a school, the
victims own house or a torture chamber or prison.34 In many of the Bosnian cases, the sexual
violence was perpetrated in detention camps by lower ranking soldiersas with Abu Ghraib
but responsibility for ordering the assaults has often led much higher up the chains of command.
Similarly, the settings Oosterhoff notes of political prisoners who were tortured are largely

31

Afrik.com.
Soldiers Who Rape, Commanders Who Condone. Human Rights Watch. July 2009. p. 31.
33
Stemple, p. 612.
34
Oosterhoff et al, p. 69.
32

formal institutional settings such as prisons, and the perpetrators are guards or other authority
figures.35
There also seems to be little difference between male or female perpetrators. As noted
above, the documented female perpetrator in the DRC was a member of a militia and the female
perpetrators in Sierra Leone were both members of rebel groups; their actions ranged from
forced intercourse with the perpetrator to forcing two men to perform sex acts on each other.36
Another case, in Bosnia, saw a woman castrate a Croatian man who was being held down by
other men.37 So the gender of the perpetrator seems to have little effect on the presence or
severity of sexual assaults, to the extent that Vikman notes, despite assertions by some to the
contrary, that not only does the presence of female soldiers does not seem to prevent sexual
abuseThe presence of a woman in a dominant position [also] did not prevent perpetration of
sexual violence.38
One similarity between the DRC and other cases, such as Bosnia, is the presence of
others. Many of the male survivors in the DRC were raped in front of their family, and
Oosterhoff writes that in Bosnia Torture [was] often carried out in public to demonstrate the
power of the perpetrators. Narratives by male survivors show that torture was frequently
perpetrated by groups and in full and deliberate view of bystanders, whether in a public place or
in a detention camp.39
The issue of perpetration is then broadened beyond the direct physical perpetrator to
those who may have ordered, encouraged, implicitly condoned or ignored the existence of these
rapes. As noted above, the criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra
35

Oosterhoff et al, p. 68-9.

Well kill you if you cry. p. 42.
37
Oosterhoff et al, p. 75.
38
Vikman, Elisabeth. Modern Combat: Sexual Violence in Warfare, Part II. Anthropology & Medicine. Vol. 12,
No. 1. April 2005. p. 42. Hereinafter Vikman 2.
39
Oosterhoff et al, p. 74.
36

10

Leone have all found high-ranking military and political officials responsible for sexual violence
committed by their subordinates that they ordered, approved of or did not punish. The report on
the FARDCs 14th brigade describes it as occasionally anarch[ic] and notes that it is one of
many FARDC brigades that has undergone serious internal conflict and escapes full control by
the military hierarchy. Brigade commanders often have a considerable degree of autonomy and
have sometimes used this to further their control over local populations and mineral wealth.40
While this in many circumstances may be true, it is also a convenient excuse for high-ranking
officers to evade responsibility for atrocities that they approve of, or that at the very least serve
their objectives.

Survivors and victims of violence

Reports from the DRC give little indication, if any, as to why the survivors may have
been singled out for sexual assault. There is generally no mention of their ethnicity, affiliation to
any particular militia or ethnic group, political stances or occupation (save one who is a
veterinarian). The only pattern that emerges is that many pygmy men have been targeted, some
supposedly due to their magical powers. By sodomising them, the fighters aim to repossess the
pygmies gift of invulnerability or Kilembe, as it is known locally. 41 This stands in contrast to
many other cases of male rape in armed conflict. As mentioned above, many Croatian and
Bosnian Muslim men were targeted because of their nationality and/or religion. Oosterhoff and
Zawati both refer to many instances of political prisoners being especially targeted, including in
Abu Ghraib,42 and Oosterhoff further notes sexual torture of men based on their sexual
orientation. In fact, in most of the literature about male rape in armed conflict, the survivors
40

Soldiers Who Rape, Commanders Who Condone. pp. 25-6.

Afrik.com.
42
Zawati, p. 35.
41

11

appear to have been targeted primarily based on religious, national or political affiliations, as
opposed to the DRC where, except for the pygmies, this seems not to be the case. That said, the
paucity of information makes it difficult to determine if any patterns exist, much less what those
might be.
Most modern cases also differ from the historical context where it may have been
defeated soldiers who were raped by the victors; there is no indication that any of the DRC
survivors were combatants, and available evidence suggests that most of the other survivors,
such as in Bosnia, Iraq and El Salvador, were also not combatants but civilians. Additionally, the
totality of defeat referenced above in Singh and also by Zawati43 does not apply to the DRC.
To date there is no winner in the war there; during the conflict territory has been taken and lost
back and forth, and even in short-term victories there is rarely much totality, as the territory is
notoriously difficult to hold.

The Torture Dynamic

I have used rape, sexual assault and sexual torture in different ways in this paper. Prior to
writing this paper I would have used both sexual assault and sexual torture as similar and
encompassing terms, but I would like to briefly address torture specifically as a concept,
determine if it is important to address the legal definition of torture, and the variety of ways it
plays into the issue of sexual violence against men in armed conflict. The UN Convention
Against Torture defines it as
any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally
inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person
information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed
or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or
for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is
43

Zawati, p. 33.

12

inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official

or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising
only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.44
Oosterhoff makes a helpful distinction between the laymans and legal definitions: an
act of violence qualifies as torture not because it is cruel, but because it is official, systematic,
and coercive or discriminatory. While I would argue that any kind of sexual violence against
women fits this legal category,45 is it always the case with sexual violence against men?
In many of the documented cases of sexual torture, the survivors and victims appear to
have been targeted based on ethnicity, nationality or political beliefs, with the wars in the former
Yugoslavia being the primary example. An estimated 4000 Croatian men alone were sexually
assaulted and tortured by Serb militants during the wars, in a variety of ways already mentioned
here, as well as many more.46 In many more, it was prisoners who were targeted, for a variety of
reasons, in ways that were officially sanctioned, or in which officials appear to have looked the
other way.47
In DRC specifically, it is unclear if discrimination plays a part in the violence, there seem
to rarely if ever be public officials present, it does not appear systematic, and none of the
published accounts refer to assailants seeking information. Intent to punish or intimidate may
enter into the equation, but that is a discussion for a later section of this paper.
Regardless of the intent, the effect in the DRC is often intimidation and coercion. Aid
workers here say the humiliation is often so severe that male rape victims come forward only if

44

United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
1985. Accessed at http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html.
45
I agree with Rus Funk that rape is used by a class of people (men) to maintain a position of domination over
another class of people (women).The impact of sexual violence and the constant threat thereof is to keep women
as a class in their place. Therefore it is inherently discriminatory.
Funk, Rus Ervin. Stopping Rape: A Challenge for Men. New Society, Philadelphia, 1993. pp. 15-16.
46
The Nature, Scope and Motivation for Sexual Violence Against Men and Boys in Armed Conflict. Discussion paper
prepared for UN OCHA Research Meeting, June26, 2008.
47
Peel, p. 65-6.

13

they have urgent health problems, like stomach swelling or continuous bleeding. Sometimes
even that is not enough. [Human Rights Watch researcher Anneke] Van Woudenberg said that
two men whose penises were cinched with rope died a few days later because they were too
embarrassed to seek help.48 I am not sure that trying to decide if male rape in the DRC
specifically constitutes torture is a worthwhile exercise. It certainly may, but the severity of its
effects and the fact that it is a crime and a human rights issue, are sufficient to warrant
addressing whether or not it fits the legal definition of torture.
Perhaps more germane is the way that terms like rape, sexual torture and sexual violence
are used to describe the crimes because, as Sivakumaran notes, reports of commissions and
investigative bodies will often record the atrocities [of sexual assaults against men] under the
rubric of torture and not sexual violence.49 He suggests this may happen because if sexual
violence formed but part of the abuse male survivors faced, they may view it as beatings or
torture generally rather than sexual violence or sexual torture in particular.50 This disconnect
even extends to formal legal structures; Carpenter writes that although sexual mutilation of men
was reported in the context of the Bosnian concentration camps, it has not been prosecuted as
rape or sexual violence at the Hague tribunal, being described rather as torture or degrading
treatment, and witness-protection initiatives undertaken by the tribunal have identified only
female victims of rape as in need of protection and psycho-social attention.51
The implications of this are potentially far-reaching. Since sexual violence is so
thoroughly associated with women and feminization, as discussed elsewhere in this paper, it is
understandable that men would want to describe their experience in ways that for them would
48

Gettleman.
Sivakumaran 2, p. 254.
50
Sivakumaran 2, p. 256.
51
Carpenter, R. Charli. Recognizing Gender-Based Violence Against Civilian Men and Boys in Conflict
Situations. Security Dialogue, Vol. 37, No. 1, March 2006. p. 95.
49

14

feel slightly less disempowering; to call it rape or sexual violence would force even more to
address some of the painful issues discussed by the Congolese survivors above. Furthermore, if
we as a society were to acknowledge that the regular barrage of sexual violence against women
is also a form of torture, we would all be implicated in a way that would be deeply
uncomfortable and unsettling for all. So this distinction between sexual violence on one hand
and (sexual) torture on the other, while understandable, is likely a serious hurdle both men and
women in adequately addressing this problem in society, and a potential stumbling block for
male survivors in addressing the underlying issues surrounding their own experiences.

The Big Question: Why does it happen?

This section will address these main issues: reasons that rape happens in armed conflict
broadly; the obvious related causes and effects of male rape in the DRCs armed conflict; and
additional theories as to why male rape is happening in the DRC that are specific to that
particular context.

Power and Control over People and Land

As Oosterhoff succinctly notes, Rape and other forms of sexual torture are a means of
terrorising and controlling a population;52 that is true in both armed conflict and peacetime, but
especially so in armed conflict where it is often systematic, even more widespread, and there is
usually greater than usual impunity for perpetrators. This has a long and applicable history in
African conflict as well. The dynamics of warlordism that over the years have contributed to
increased sexual violence include fluid control of territory and terrorising a population as a
means of subduing it. Herbst notes that pre-colonial rulers often had to use loyalty, coercion and
52

Oosterhoff et al, p. 69.

15

infrastructure to politically control a territory, 53 but with warlords focusing on extracting

resources rather than making friends or investing in roads, coercion seems to have become the
preferred tool. Furthermore, in the DRC conflict as in pre-colonial times, land often alternated
between two or more ruling groups.
The practical consequence of this for the civilian population, when coercion is widely
practiced and soldiers arent paid enough, is that women and girls (and in this case men as well)
are attacked by one group because of real or perceived support for the enemy, 54 then when
territory changes hands they are attacked by the enemy for the same reason. For combatants, this
is notably easier than engaging in a military skirmish, assuming the opponent has not already run
away and left the women to fend for themselves.55 As Vikman notes, Sexual violation of women
can be seen as a tool for punishing the men they are associated with. Behaviour that under other
circumstances would be unacceptable is sometimes purified when perceived as an attack on male
enemies.56
Specifically in the DRC, Human Rights Watch notes the effect to which rape is used:
Soldiers and combatants raped and otherwise abused women and girls as part of their effort to
win and maintain control over civilians and the territory they inhabited. They attacked women
and girls as representatives of their communities, intending through their injury and humiliation
to terrorize the women themselves and many others.57 Sometimes this may even be done more
strategically; the UN Security Council commission to examine the war in the former Yugoslavia
found that individuals and small groups committed sexual assault against the target ethnic group

53

Herbst, p. 41.
War Within the War, p. 24.
55
War Within the War, p. 79.
56
Vikman 2, p. 40.
57
War Within the War, p. 23.
54

16

before generalised fighting broke out,58 suggesting the goal may have been to specifically
demoralize a population before an even larger attack.
Sometimes this terrorizing means driving a group of people entirely out of an area,
exacerbating the already severe economic and human toll of the conflict, such as in the DRC:
Combatants, singly or in small groups, engaged in opportunistic attacks, targeting women
and girls in their homes or who were going about their daily business, walking to the
market or tending their fields. Cases of sexual violence became so frequent in some areas
that women and girls stopped working in the fields or going to the market, took to hiding
in the forest at night instead of sleeping in their homes, and sometimes fled their home
area altogether.59
And since womens activities comprised the majority of economic activity in the DRC, and
many men were either dead or had been conscripted, this blockade to food gathering and
production, or any other way to garner income, is one of the reasons that malnutrition and
starvation are the primary causes of death in the DRC since 1996. Territory becomes easier to
control if there is no one else there. As a result of the rapes and other violence, many people
fled their homes; even the highest local authority, the Administrateur du territoire (territorial
administrator), fled. Most civilians only returned when the brigade left.60

The basic causes and effects of male rape are similar. Zawati suggests in Bosnia male
rape was used with the aim of expressing aggression, psychologically damaging the victims,
and destroying their identity and as a weapon of war to inflict serious mental, physical, and
sexual health consequences leading to the destruction of the victim, and to be evidence of the
perpetrators complete victory.61 I earlier noted that the totality of defeat concept may not
apply to the DRC, with that conflict lacking much totality; however the sexual violence against
58

Vikman 2, p. 38.
Seeking Justice, p. 9.
60
Soldiers Who Rape, Commanders Who Condone, p. 29.
61
Zawati, p. 34.
59

17

men may simply be an attempt to project that totality where it does not exist. If militia members
or others expect to be passing through an area again, either in conflict or simply transit, and hope
for safe passage and possibly unimpeded access to food and other resources, terrorizing the
population into submission may be an attempt to make a possible return as safe and painless as
possible.
Using sexual torture to send a message seems to be particularly relevant when dealing
with political prisoners. Zawati notes that at Abu Ghraib, rape and sexual torture were
conducted in a systematic way to crush the spirit of the political detainees who opposed and
resisted the invasion.62 Peel notes that in Algeria, it
was made known unofficially by the authorities that men had been raped in detention,
and should no longer have the status of adult males in the community. This fitted into the
overall pattern of intimidation through torture in which semi-conscious bodies were
dumped by the authorities, covered with blood and bruises, to discourage others from
questioning their authority.63
Pantazis notes that the psychological trauma and consequences of rape are mostly
similar for men and women,64 and we see this in the descriptions of male survivors in the DRC.
Kazungu Ziwa wanders aimlessly, unable to practice his trade; Just thinking about what
happened to me makes me tired. Tupapo Mukuli spends his days sitting on a bench, by
himself.65 As Turner notes of many male survivors generally, Ziwa and Mukuli seem to be left
passive in both the private and socio-political areas of life,66 which was likely the goal of their
assailants. They are mocked by members of their community and have few resources for
assistance.

62

Zawati, p. 35.
Peel, p. 66.
64
Pantazis, Angelo. Notes on Male Rape. South African Journal of Criminal Justice. Vol. 12. 1999. p. 371.
65
Gettleman.
66
Turner, Stuart. Surviving Sexual Assault and Sexual Torture. In Meezy, Gillian C. and Michael B. King, eds. Male
Victims of Sexual Assault. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1992. p. 81.
63

18

The question then becomes, why the shift from sexual assaults against women to more
against men? One explanation may be that, after more than 15 years of conflict and using sexual
violence against women to get to men and communities, assailants are simply now skipping the
middle man. Why terrorize women to terrorize men when you can terrorize the men directly? It
seems potentially much more debilitating and effective that way, and there may be even less of a
revenge motive because survivors feel so emasculated and powerless.

Diminished Status and Feminization

Survivors also face a loss of status in other ways. Sometimes their experience has no
legal status at all, in the many jurisdictions in which male rape is not considered possible, much
less a crime.67 And just as MacKinnon wrote that sexual violence symbolizes and actualizes
womens subordinate social status to men,68 if sexual violence against men is viewed as a
violent act of subordination, then a man can be a social woman,69 thus losing his status and
privilege as a man. Sivakumaran shares a variety of survivor experiences, many along the lines
of I feel that people in the community look down on me. When I talk to other men, they look at
me as if Im worthless now.70
This is clearly enforced in the DRC, as Mr. Mukuli recounts The people in my village
say: Youre no longer a man. Those men in the bush made you their wife.71 It is compounded
by the lack of resources for male survivors, as he finds himself the lone man in the rape ward at
Panzi hospital, which is filled with hundreds of women. The women knit clothes and weave
baskets to make a little money while their bodies heal, but Mr. Mukuli, who does not know how
67

Sivakumaran 2, p. 271.
MacKinnon, Catherine. Reflections on gender equality under law. Yale Law Journal. 1991. p. 1281. Quoted in
Pantazis, p. 372.
69
Pantazis, 372.
70
Sivakumaran 2, p. 271.
71
Gettleman.
68

19

to do this traditionally womens work, is unable to participate in even that.72 The mother of the
young man raped by the female Mai-mai rebel has warned him to stay quiet about the rape and
he believes that if others in his community learn of the rape, he will become an outcast, even
though the rape left Jean-Baptiste with a urinary tract infection, recurrent nightmares and a deep
fear that he may have contracted HIV/AIDS.73 These dynamics compounded with the public
nature of many of the rapes and incidents of sexual torture, and occasional broadcasting of the
fact by perpetrators (such as in Algeria, as noted above), ensure the feminization and loss of
status among survivors.

The Taint of Homosexuality

The feminization and loss of status is compounded for many men by what Sivakumaran
calls the taint of homosexuality; assumptions made by the outside world about the sexual
orientation of male survivors of sexual assault. The problem arises, as Pantazis notes, because
in social thinking, masculinity is inextricably linked with heterosexuality. Society imagines men
to be inviolable and in control of their own bodies, so that if a man is raped he may doubt
whether the sex was really forced, or he may fear the ridicule and disbelief of his family, friends
and community.74 Because, as Sivakumaran notes, if it is recalled that rape is about power and
dominance and not sex, this would explain why the male rapist retains his heterosexual
(powerful) status, while the male victim loses his heterosexual status and is considered
homosexualized (made weak, effeminate).75
In addition to the severe social stigma that those who are gay or perceived to be gay face
worldwide (in virtually every country in the world people suffer from de jure and de facto
72

Gettleman.
North Kivu: No End to War on Women and Children.
74
Pantazis, p. 373.
75
Sivakumaran 2, p. 272.
73

20

discrimination based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation.76), in many of those same
countries, homosexuality is considered a crime, and male rape is not. So the effect for men is that
they lose their social status and their identity and are legally imperiled, in addition to the physical
and psychological trauma regularly associated with rape. As a result they also rarely seek out
services to deal with their trauma; Due to the stigma attached to homosexuality in Sierra Leone,
male victims of rape feared they would be perceived as homosexuals and therefore few boys
were willing to report it.77
An additional complicating piece to this, which also affects our understanding of who the
perpetrators are, is Sivakumarans assertion that men regard non-consensual sex with women
less negatively than non-consensual sex with men, there is often misleading reporting by
survivors of who the perpetrator was. He cites reports of numerous cases in which the victims
of male/male rape have indicated that they have been raped but have identified the perpetrator as
female when, in reality, the offender was male.78

Genocide and Ethnicity

Rape and sexual violence has only been legally connected to genocide since the late
1990s, as part of the prosecution of those responsible for the Rwandan genocide. Key in proving
genocide is proving the existence of intent, to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical,
racial or religious group.79 In the Akayesu judgment the International Criminal Tribunal for
Rwanda found that sexual violence was an integral part of the process of destruction,
specifically targeting Tutsi women and specifically contributing to their destruction and to the
76

Human Rights Watch World Report, 2002. Quoted in Sivakumaran, Sandesh. Male/Male Rape and the Taint of
Homosexuality. Human Rights Quarterly. November 2005. Vol. 27, No. 4. p. 1292.
77
Well Kill You if you Cry, p. 42.
78
Sivakumaran 1, p. 1290.
79
Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Article 2.

21

destruction of the Tutsi group as a whole.80 In Bosnia, one of the many atrocities Muslim
women were subjected to was their being forcibly impregnated [by Serb militants]. This was
done in order that they would carry Serb babies; in order that Muslim men would consider them
unmarriable; in order that they would be shunned by their communities; and in order that they
would not give birth in the future.81 This is similar to what happened in Rwanda and many other
countries; other types of sexual violence were also used to insure that women could not get
pregnant or give birth.
The flip side of this for men, Sivakumaran notes, is that men who have been castrated or
otherwise sexually tortured and are no longer able to have sex or produce sperm are just as
unable to procreate as women who have been tortured, a key part of genocide.82 And in addition
to the physical component these men, like the Bosnian women, are often considered unmarriable
and are shunned by their communities. Furthermore, even if survivors come through the assault
with their reproductive capabilities intact, they may experience psychological difficulties leading
them to suffer from sexual and relationship difficulties.83
In the broader, ideological sense, Sivakumaran notes, sexual violence against men
symbolizes the disempowerment of the national, racial, religious or ethnic group, which is part
of the motivation of genocide.84 Vikman also looks at the more symbolic connection between
male rape and genocide. She quotes Arjun Appadurai who suggests that attacks on the body are
ways of exploring, penetrating and investigating the enemy. Like the wooden stakes driven
through the anus of the ethnic enemy and up into his skull (in the case of HutuTutsi

80

Prosecutor v. Jean-Paul Akayesu. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Case No. ICTR-96-4-T. Judgment
and Sentence, para. 731.
81
Sivakumaran 1, p. 1295-6.
82
Sivakumaran 1, p. 1296.
83
Sivakumaran 2, p. 273.
84
Sivakumaran 2, p. 274.

22

ethnocide...) the penis in ethnocidal rape is simultaneously an instrument of degradation, of

purification, and of a grotesque form of intimacy with the ethnic other.85
Whether genocide is a motivation for the sexual violence in the DRC is unclear based on
the available evidence. The only individuals whose ethnicity is known from available reports are
the pygmies who were sexually assaulted. And, as noted above, the ostensible reason was to
possess their magical power rather than destroy them as an ethnic group. It is also largely unclear
to what extent genocide was even a factor in the sexual violence against women in the DRC; the
large number of ethnic groups represented in both the overall population and in the militia
groupsas opposed to just the Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda; or Bosnian Muslims, Croats and
Serbs in the former Yugoslavialikely made distinctions harder to make, or at least harder for
documentation groups to observe. So while genocide has been a factor in sexual violence against
men in other armed conflicts, I cannot say to what extent it is present in the DRC.

Enhanced Status and Group Bonding

As noted earlier in Michael Scarces review of studies of male sexual assaults, which is
consistent with literature reviewed for this paper, male rape is often perpetrated by groups of
men in public places. Some of the reasons for the have been discussed above, but I would like to
address an additional and distinct explanation, posited by Singh: Status and affiliation with their
peers have been shown to be a reason for male rape. Participation in the assault served to
strengthen and confirm the social bond among the assailants.86
Vikman covers this in details with examples from the former Yugoslavia. Five or six
soldiers were present when Cvijetin [Maksimovic, a Serb conscript] raped girls and he describes

85
86

Vikman 2, p. 41.
Singh, p. 132.

23

their behaviour at further length than the victims. He recalls how they egged him on,
...bragging about how they raped the women themselves.87 Another Serb soldier who
committed sexual assaults, while expressing some remorse, When pressed he admits that a part
of him enjoyed the rapes and that he knew ...it was good because when I got back I would drink
and celebrate.88 And whether or not this was the case, the soldier believes his commander
ordered rapes to increase the morale within the troops. Borislav was given women to rape just
as he was given wine and foodas a reward.89
Most importantly, It encourages bonding, however negative, among violators and builds
an impenetrable barrier between them and their victims. 90 And beyond that, and this is
particularly important when committing atrocities that are war crimes, crimes against humanity,
or simply would otherwise be repellent to those participating or watching, group sexual violence
creates incrimination, indicating a sense of guilt.91 If individuals believe they have done
something wrong, and share that guilt and culpability with others, that not only creates a bond
between then, but also lessens the likelihood that non-participants will leave the group, much less
report on the crimes to outsiders. Vikman quotes Joanna Bourke on the strength of this dynamic,
using Abu Ghraib as an example of how even male and female soldiers are bonded together:
this is enactment of comradeship between men and women who are set apart from civilian
society back home by acts of violence.92
In the DRC I think the example of the 14th Brigade is potentially illustrative. FARDC
brigades and units are often an evolving mix of different militia groups being integrated, new

87

Vikman 2, p. 39.
Vikman 2, p. 39.
89
Vikman 2, p. 39-40.
90
Vikman 2, p. 40.
91
Vikman 2, p. 43.
92
Vikman 2, p. 42.
88

24

recruits and existing soldiers. The 14th, which experienced considerable internal division, 93
was a mixture of groups of varying ethnic and military backgrounds, who were ostensibly
fighting for the same government but in reality were very disconnected. Founded in 2006,
The majority of its soldiers were former combatants of the Congolese Rally for
Democracy-Goma (RCD-Goma), one of the main, Rwandan-supported rebel groups that
fought the national government during Congos second war. In addition, the brigade also
included former Mai Mai combatants (an armed group that opposed the RCD-Goma) and
members of the former government army, the Forces Armes Congolaises (FAC). The
brigade was divided into four battalions each broadly divided along ethnic lines which
separated the Kinyarwanda-speaking soldiers (Congolese Hutu and Tutsi) from those of
other ethnic groups.94
Almost immediately, many 14th Brigade soldiers felt aggrieved about the predominant role of
Kinyarwanda speakers (mostly Congolese Hutu) in positions of command.95
Faced with a group of soldiers who not only disliked each other but may have even
fought against each other, it is understandable if commanders might look for opportunities to
encourage group bonding and cohesion. Group sexual violence is a widely documented way of
doing so, especially since, at a basic level, The militarys emphasis of masculinity makes rape a
desirable tool for asserting capability in the field.96 And the need may have been even greater in
the wake of military setbacks experienced by the brigade. Following a humiliating defeat in 2007
at the hands of Laurent Nkundas National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP)
militia, 14th brigade soldiers fled the battlefront and dispersed in multiple directions,
committing many abuses along the way.97 A related explanation may have been that defeated
soldiers, embarrassed and ashamed at their defeat, used sexual violence as a way of attempting to
regain a sense of manhood and power.

93

Soldiers Who Rape, Commanders Who Condone, p. 25.

Soldiers Who Rape, Commanders Who Condone, p. 23.
95
Soldiers Who Rape, Commanders Who Condone, p. 23-4.
96
Vikman 2, p. 41.
97
Soldiers Who Rape, Commanders Who Condone, p. 24.
94

25

A related explanation is that sexual violence and other atrocities are used to allow
soldiers to express their frustration and receive some sort of non-monetary compensation, since
often food, much less a regular paycheck, is often hard to come by and where only a very few
households would be able to provide anything to troops demanding food, money or provisions.
With warlords and the FARDC leaders often unable to pay their troops (and probably often
unwilling to share their ill-gotten gains with them any more than necessary), the paucity of
resources is exemplified by an RCD directive in March 2001, whereby households in one
community would be required to contribute two glassfuls of rice every two days to support the
Local Defense Force.98
Further expanding our pool of victims, Russell also notes that sexualized violence also is
seen in initiation and integration into military/paramilitary forces of new recruits.99 Whether
that refers to new recruits being sexually assaulted, or being forced to sexually assault others as
part of the initiation, it seems likely that both are present to some degree. Vikman recounts
instances where it refers to physically assaulting detainees, as well as part of verbal abuse of the
recruits. Cvijetin Maksimovic in 1992 was told by fellow guards at the Luka internment camp
to rape 12 women. When he had difficulties getting an erection they showed him how to grab
the women while scorning him for being a sissy.100 His friend Slobodan Panic, on his first day
as a reserve policeman at Luka, was ordered to rape two girls. I answered that I couldnt do it,
and this tall guy said, Go on do it, or would you rather be killed? Slobodan raped five girls, shot
two men and killed two more with a knife.101

98

War within the war, p. 38.

Russell, Wynne. Sexual Violence Against Men and Boys. Forced Migration Review. Issue 27. January 2007. p.
22.
100
Vikman 2, p. 39.
101
Vikman 2, p. 39.
99

26

Russells language also returns me to Singh, and an additional component he sees in male
on male rape: For some assailants, the aggression itself became eroticised and they indicated
that they found excitement and gratification in the sexual abuse and degradation of their
victim.102 Russell used the phrase sexualized violence, and at a basic level, many of the types
of violence discussed in this paper, rather than violent expressions of sex, as rape is often
minimized, are in fact sexualized expressions of violence. For some assailants, sexual violence
and sexual torture represents and eroticization of aggression and violence that is perhaps
understandable after more than a dozen years in the midst of armed conflict.

Drawing or Deflecting Attention

An additional idea, which encompasses two competing theories, is posited in the Soldiers
Who Rape, Commanders Who Condone report. Detailing the anarchic 14th Brigade of the
FARDC, the report at one point recounts the months-long occupation of the town of Kabare. The
brigade destroyed fields, cut down a large number of trees and dismantled local wooden homes
for firewood or their own shelter. Soldiers also erected barricades, extorted money from
civilians, arbitrarily detained, tortured, and killed civilians, and committed acts of sexual
violence against women and girls, from January to August 2008.103
The report suggests that many soldiers, angry over a change of leadership, might have
used the violence to attempt to attract attention from decision-makers and the public to their
grievances: a human rights activist in Bukavu reported that the soldiers encouraged them to
inform the media about their abuses.104 Whether this was a successful strategy is unclear and
debatable, but the inclusion of sexual violence in the list of atrocities means we cannot rule it out
102

Singh, p. 132.
Soldiers Who Rape, Commanders Who Condone, p. 25.
104
Soldiers Who Rape, Commanders Who Condone, p. 25.
103

27

as a relevant factor. Adding male rape to the equation is potentially paradoxical though; while it
is seen as a new and novel twist in the DRCs civil war and been covered as such by some news
outlets, it has not attracted anywhere near the attention of sexual violence against women and
girls.
I would like to suggest an alternative possibility, though one that is in a sense
complementary and not mutually exclusive: that the sexual violence, against both men and
women, may be used as a way to deflect attention from the other abuses that are happening,
particularly economic exploitation. As mentioned above, warlordism and control of territory and
natural resources is a large, if not the leading, motivation for the conflict. Often, the territory and
resource control go hand in hand with sexual violence, but I would argue that sexual violence is
often seen from the outside, understandably, as the more severe of the two evils. Savvy
Congolese warlords and leaders may be using other atrocities, such as sexual violence, without
regard to their military application to deflect public attention from the real purpose of their
campaignsenriching themselves.

Punishment and Revenge

Another recurring theme worth mentioning is referenced most explicitly in Vikman: A
final device facilitating sexual violence is ethos of vengeance. Conviction that victims are in the
wrong justifies actions against them. Blame is imposed on individuals in their capacity as
representatives of a group, a city, an ethnic population, a nation.105 She relates this to stories told
by perpetrators in various conflicts, though I was unable to find specific connections to the DRC.
However, given the long history of violence, the strong ethnic identity politics that are often
closely bound to different militant groups, and a society where virtually everyone has been
105

Vikman 2, p. 44.

28

affected by the war in many ways, including having women in their families who have
experienced sexual violence, there is almost certainly thoughts of revenge running through many
peoples heads.
Vikman also notes that the revenge is rarely directed at the individual who caused the
harmthat person is often unknownbut more likely toward a particular group that is seen as
having caused the harm, i.e. Hutu genocidaires who said they had to take Tutsi women because
before the war they were not able to take them. They said Tutsi women stayed to themselves
before.106 The extent to which this is a factor in male rape in the DRC is, however, unclear.

Homosexualization
A final aspect that, like the previous, I am not aware of occurring much in the DRC but I
believe is possibly of interest, is the idea of what Sivakumaran calls homosexualization, or
forcing a male to sexually assault or sexually torture another man. He particularly notes this
among prisoners held by Serbs, and documented in the Tadic case before the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and the acts implemented include a variety of
different assaults and tortures.107
The way that sex between two men, both consensual and non-consensual, has historically
been perceived is that the receiving partner is the homosexual partner, and the penetrating (or, in
traditional discourse, the more powerful) partner is not necessarily so. Various authors note this
is why the taint of homosexuality, as Sivakumaran calls it, is applied by society to the
victim/survivor of male on male rape, but not to the perpetrator, and this is also one of the
reasons the majority of perpetrators of male on male rape self-identify as heterosexual.
106

Shattered Lives: Sexual Violence During the Rwandan Genocide and its Aftermath. Human Rights Watch report,
1996. p. 25.
107
Sivakumaran 1, p. 1295.

29

Sivakumaran raises this point to examine the frequency of sexual assaults committed by one
prisoner against another, and how this is effectively used to emasculate two prisoners at once.
In this situation, the traditional power dynamic no longer applies because the power is vested
with the guards rather than with the person committing the sodomy. As a result, forced sodomy
taints both parties with homosexuality and strips them both of their masculinity and, with it,
any power they may have.108 He further notes that this leaves survivors questioning both their
masculinity and their sexuality, and suffering from the dual misconceptions it is homosexual
men who are raped, and that heterosexual men do not rape other heterosexual men.109 While I
have not read about this specifically happening in the DRC, I believe it is in important dynamic
to acknowledge.

Solving the Problem

War rapes in the former Yugoslavia would not be such an effective weapon of torture
and terror if it were not for concepts of honor, shame, and sexuality that are attached to womens
bodies in peacetime.110 Linos includes this quote from Maria Olujic to illustrate the fact that it is
peacetime gender dynamics which make wartime sexual violence against women such a
devastating and effective weapon, but I include it here to suggest that the same applies for men.
The peacetime expectations of traditional masculinitythat men must always be in charge,
aggressively heterosexual, violent and physically strong compared to other men, exercise power
effectively over others, and the likeare exactly the dynamics that make wartime sexual
violence, or any kind of sexual violence really, a crushing blow to mens self-esteem, sense of
worth and place in society, and understanding of their own masculinity and sexuality. If it
108

Sivakumaran 1, p. 1298.
Sivakumaran 2, p. 273.
110
Linos, Natalia. Rethinking gender-based violence during war: Is violence against civilian men a problem worth
addressing? Social Science & Medicine. No. 68, 2009. p. 1549.
109

30

werent for the continual expectation to exemplify and uphold patriarchal structures, mens
disempowerment would likely be a much less effective weapon of war.
What we can take from that is conventional, traditional masculinity is in dire need of a reevaluation. Because the flip side to the above is the reality that it is mens desire to wield power
and control, and insecurity about not being able to do so in other arenas, that is one of the
reasons men commit sexual assaults. Shifting our understanding of masculinity thus reduces the
likelihood of continued sexual assaults, and lessens the effectiveness of those that happen as a
weapon of war. This is the overarching solution; the reality of its implementation is more
complicated.
The starting point is educational and social marketing programs for men and boys of all
ages and in all different settings challenging them to critically examine what parts of their
individual masculine identity do and do not work for them, and to act accordingly based on that.
Comprehensive programs such as Men Can Stop Rape in the US and Men As Partners in South
Africa have shown this to be a startlingly effective tool, as men begin to embrace a masculinity
that is not only more authentic to who they are, but also forces them to challenge violent,
especially around gender, behaviors of themselves and their peers. This change is essential in
changing the current reality, in which rape is an inevitable byproduct of the gendered nature of
war.111
Implementing these programs requires more time, money, organizing ability and political
will than most governments or organizations are willing to invest, however, making effectiveness
a challenge. Funding for such programs internationally, often supported by USAID and other

111

Lewis, Dustin A. Unrecognized Victims: Sexual Violence Against Men in Conflict Settings Under International
Law. Wisconsin International Law Journal. Vol. 27, No. 1. 2009. p. 7.

31

governmental and non-governmental agencies is haphazard, rarely sustainable since it is based

on short funding cycles, and still notoriously difficult to evaluate.
The implementation is further complicated in a place like the eastern DRC, still in the
midst of armed conflict and lacking much of the necessary infrastructure. That said, there are
numerous venues through which such programming can be implemented, from schools and
churches to community centers and sports teams to health clinics.
A larger challenge is working effectively with the FARDC, much less the DRCs varied
militia groups. Throughout the Soldiers Who Rape, Commanders Who Condone report I was
struck by a feeling that the 14th Brigade commanders exercised control over their troops when
the felt like it, and when it was convenient claimed that their troops were simply out of control
and there was nothing they could do. Clearly a professionalism of the ranks would begin to
address this problem, but sexual assault is problem that afflicts militaries in every country around
the world, often at higher levels than among the civilian population, so it is clearly not a full
solution. The challenge of making clear to young recruits and conscripts, in the words of one Air
Force police officer I spoke to in 2009, who its ok to kill and who its not ok to kill, or in this
case rape, can be surprisingly difficult and, to them, often seem paradoxical. Even in militaries
where service members to receive sexual assault awareness and prevention education, it is rarely
more than an hour a year, and viewed as an ignorable chore rather than a key part of their duty.
The next part of addressing this issue properly is more and gender-appropriate survivor
services. As the Gettleman article shows, in a place like the DRC services are overwhelming
targeted toward women, which is understandable based on a traditional understanding of sexual
violence and torture, while at the same time still deeply insufficient to meet the needs of all the
survivors. Services targeted toward women make male survivors invisible in societys eyes, and

32

make them feel their experience is not valid or welcomed. Gender-neutral services are better, but
often feel insufficient to everyone. Ideal would be targeted, gender-specific outreach and
information, coupled with a delivery structure that would allow male survivors to preserve some
level of anonymity if they choose.
This will likely need to start with increased services through health care systems, such as
they are. Sivakumaran notes that male survivors of sexual violence will turn first to the medical
world for treatment;112 this is likely because they have nowhere else to turn, or because they
dont know of anywhere else to turn. As second possible explanation is that due to traditional
male socialization, many of us are more aware of physical problems our bodies face rather than
mental health ones. Regardless, there need to be services provided through those venues, and
they need to be comprehensive and cross referencing; doctors need training to screen for sexual
violence and torture, and should be versed in not only how to respond but also where to refer
survivors to. Both doctors and survivors, like most people, will still be challenged by the idea
that men can be raped at all; the assumption that men are potential combatants113 rather than
potential victims of war remains strong, and is a serious impediment to recognizing the changing
face of both war and sexual violence.
Concurrent with additional services should be better studies to determine the extent of the
problem. As noted above, most of the major surveys of sexual violence in the DRC by groups
like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have not just focused on women survivors,
but have by and large totally ignored male survivors. Until there is a greater understanding of the
phenomena, it will be difficult to secure the funds and awareness necessary to effectively address

112
113

Sivakumaran 2, p. 259.
Carpenter, p. 88.

33

the issue. A more public airing that male rape exists will also create space for male survivors to
feel more comfortable coming forward to share their stories and seek services.

Conclusion
The topic of male sexual violence in the DRC is a deeply frustrating and intractable one;
there is a serious lack of information about the topic at all, to the extent that we rarely know who
the perpetrators and survivors are, much less the extent of the problem. It is clear from historical
research that this is not a new problem worldwide, and we can probably assume it is not a new
problem in the DRC either, merely one that has only recently been more widely discussed.
We know that there are often multiple perpetrators, that weapons are often involved, and
that the scope of sexual violence is quite broad, all in line with what we know about sexual
violence against men in armed conflict broadly. Specific to the DRC, we know that it seems most
likely to happen in non-institutional settings, it may often be happening by people with no formal
power or position of authority, and that there seems to be no real way to predict who will be
singled out for violence. We also know that the distinction between sexual violence and torture,
presents a potential barrier to effectively addressing the issue, both from the perspective of
survivors but also from service providers and the public at large. As long as we continue to
believe that men cannot be sexually assaulted, or that when it happens it is not significant, the
issue will never be properly addressed.
In terms of the prevention, we must first isolate the motivations, and that is difficult.
Some seem clearly relevant to the DRC context: exercising power and control over populations
and geography; emphasizing the defeat of peoples, whether real, perceived or attempted; drawing
attention to grievances and deflecting attention from other atrocities; building group identity and

34

cohesion; and attempting to feminize, and demasculinize men as a way of reducing their social
stature. Other potential causes of male rape in the DRCgenocide, vengeance,
homosexualizationmay or not be true. The main problem is that it seems, to the outside
observer, to be so disorganized. Whether this is the reality, or what the perpetrators hope to
project as the reality, will remain unclear until sufficient research has been done.
What is clear is that this problem has always existed, is pervasive, and will not disappear
on its own. It may even be growing. That knowledge is enough for us to know that we must be
doing more. We know some of the ways to address it; the challenge is making them a reality.

35

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