In DR Congo, women crowdfund to get gang rape suspects to court

Prosecutors have charged 10 men over the rapes. But the first hearing set for October 28 was postponed after the state could not find the funds to transport the accused to Lubumbashi for the trial. Photo: Unsplash/KALEA MORGAN

After the trial of alleged gang rapists was postponed over lack of funds to get them to court, incensed women in DR Congo crowdfunded the US$450 needed, a spokeswoman said.

Fifty-six women prisoners were sexually assaulted for three days by fellow inmates in September 2020, after a riot broke out in a jail in the southeastern city of Lubumbashi and prison authorities lost control of the facility, the prosecution says.