U.N. raises Congo rape toll to 240

 

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- More than 240 women, children and infants may have been raped when rebel forces seized a town in the Congo, a U.N. report said.

A spokesman for the United Nations said last month that a human rights team found that more than 150 women were gang-raped in late July and early August by members of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, and a local militia called Mai-Mai.

The United Nations raised the number of people raped by FDLR and Mai-Mai fighters to 240, adding some of those raped were infants, the BBC reports.

U.N. peacekeeping forces in the area have been supporting an effort to beat the FDLR, who are linked to the Rwandan genocides in 1994.

The U.N. Security Council in the wake of the initial reports had an emergency session and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon later sent a senior representative to the area to investigate.

The Security Council pressed the peacekeeping force in the area for not responding to the rape allegations. The force, however, said it was unaware of the rapes until more than a week after the atrocities despite being positioned around 20 miles from the Congolese village.

Leaders in the FDLR said their force weren't involved in the attacks.