"I've got stomach pains. The fever's going to my head," said Pascalis F. apologetically (for security reasons, the names of the women interviewed have been changed). The 40-year-old farmer, her eyes filled with tears, swallowed hard. A small crowd had gathered around the old tree she was leaning against at the entrance to the village of Chegera. According to locals, this hamlet some 50 kilometers north of Bukavu, the provincial capital of South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), saw "hundreds of armed men" arrived on February 14 from Kalehe, a town then in the throes of intense fighting between rebels of the March 23 Movement (M23) and the DRC's armed forces (FARDC). Pascalis F. and 25 other women were raped that morning by the assailants.

"Three men entered my home. They intimidated me with their weapons and then did the deed," said the mother of seven, whose eldest daughter was listening to the story in the audience. "They spoke Lingala [a language spoken in the west and north of the DRC]." Villagers claimed to have "recognized FARDC uniforms, but also other outfits. There were also armed men in civilian clothes."

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