GOMA, Congo — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was visibly moved Tuesday by firsthand evidence of the brutality of war in eastern Congo, delivering an impassioned appeal for action to end to rampant sexual violence that she called “evil in its basest form.”
Clinton announced a new package of $17 million in American aid to respond to an epidemic of rape and other sexual crimes directed mainly at women and girls by government troops and rebel groups fighting in the region.
Her offer came after a harrowing meeting with victims of violent gang rapes in a crowded refugee camp on the outskirts of Goma where 18,000 men, women and children have sought shelter from revenge attacks raging in the countryside.
“It is almost impossible to describe the level of suffering and despair,” a shaken Clinton said afterward.
Under the shadow of an active volcano, Clinton toured the Magunga Camp, a dust-choked warren of tents and tin-lined huts, listening as officials and residents of the camp described the horrors of gang rapes and a litany of deaths from malnutrition, malaria, tuberculosis and diarrhea.
Picking her way through a path littered with volcanic rock, Clinton said she “wanted to see for myself what was happening here.”
“We really want to return home, that’s why we are asking America to help stop the fighting,” said Chantale Mapendo, a refugee who lives in the camp. “That’s why I’m here,” Clinton replied. “I want you to be able to go home.”
Clinton appeared moved when she was shown a 4-year-old who was suffering from malnutrition. Belly distended, eyes hollow, the skeletal boy weighed less than 15 pounds.
Residents told Clinton that women, girls and boys are often victimized by rape when they leave camp to gather wood or tend to gardens.
