Mobile court offers rare chance of justice for east Congo rape victims

Congolese victims of rape sit covered at the military court where Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) suspects appear on their trial at a makeshift courtroom in the village of Mangombe, Kamanyola in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo March 9, 2023. REUTERS/Crispin Kyalangalilwa

KAMANYOLA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - A large crowd gathered around the open sides of the makeshift courtroom in the eastern Congolese village of Kamanyola in early March to watch the culmination of a trial of 15 military officers for the rape of minors.

They watched in silence, some craning to see better, as a soldier stripped the epaulettes off a colonel whom a judge had just ordered be dishonourably discharged from the army and sentenced to seven years in prison for raping a local 14-year-old girl last September.