A senior UN official called the Democratic Republic of Congo “the rape capital of the world” due to the large number of women who have become victims of rape in the country.

In 2009, more than 8,000 women were raped during the fighting in eastern DR Congo. Rape continues to be a prominent issue in the conflict because perpetrators are going unpunished, says to Margot Wallstrom, the UN’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict.

“If women continue to suffer sexual violence, it is not because the law is inadequate to protect them, but because it is inadequately enforced,” she said.

Wallstrom urged the Security Council to punish the perpetrators.  So far the UN mission in DR Congo is dealing with the problem by escorting women on their way to the market, developing early warning systems and working with local officials, a UN statement says.

A report by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative released in April revealed that “60 percent of rape victims in South Kivu were gang raped by armed men, more than half of the assaults took place in the victims’ homes and an increasing number of attacks were being carried out by civilians,” BBC reports.

Although the Second Congo War ended in 2003, the country is still filled militia and army violence.