Militia Commander Arrested in Mass Rape

In an article by The Guardian, Lieutenant Colonel Mayele was handed over to UN peace officials by his superiors in conjunction with the mass rape of 300 people over four days in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is speculated to be due to struggles in the area over scarce mineral resources in the area.While this arrest is seen as a positive step in a good direction for human rights in Congo, human rights activists think it would have been more powerful to turn over the FDLR leaders, who are led by the Rwandan Hutus linked to the genocide in 1994. This groups committed an additional over 200 rapes in August alone, and are believed to have more power and impact than Mayele. The initial rapes, however, are seen as a sign of the weakness of the UN Monusco peacekeeping forces, the largest mission in the world and Congolese army.

Posted by: Zach Porlier