Jeanne, a 23-year-old from Pinga, 180 kilometres from Goma between Masisi and Walikale, has been receiving treatment for two months at a clinic in Goma run by Doctors on Call for Service (DOCS). She was just 19 and two months pregnant when armed groups abducted her and three other women on the way to the market at Pinga.

"One day we decided we needed some soap and some salt and went off to the market at Pinga. When it started to get dark, four of us - Jeanne's sister in law, her mother-in-law's sister and another women - said we had better get back. It was already 5 o'clock.

On our way back we met seven men. Two grabbed me. They raped me for an hour. By now it was dark and I couldn't walk. They had raped us not far from the road, just near our village and soon some villagers - her husband, mother-in-law, two brothers-in-law and father-in-law - came to find us with torches.

On our way back we met seven men. Two grabbed me. They raped me for an hour.
Jeanne, 23 yrs old

Three days later, with heavy bleeding I was taken to Pinga hospital. The baby was ok."

Eventually, in 2000, Jeanne gave birth to a healthy baby, but she, herself, was badly injured and incontinent. She just cried. " Why can't I get better?"

When Jeanne was raped four years ago, rape was not practised as a weapon of war. At the time, armed groups would loot everything while the villagers fled, 'limiting' themselves to cutting of the hand of anyone who was caught.

Jeanne and her group were the first to be raped in the area. They learnt of counsellors who could help victims, and her husband suggested that she seek help.

The route from Pinga to Goma was extremely dangerous and it is currently too hazardous unsafe to go back. Her two children, now aged seven and four, are still in Pinga, and she worries about them.

"Here at least I can sleep, and I am very grateful for the food aid."

Jeanne has received news that her mother and children are ok, but her father has died. However, exceptionally, her husband has stood by her, accompanying his wife to Pinga.