Mass Rape 'Pandemic' Sweeps Eastern Congo

At least 40 men, women and children in eastern Congo have been raped in the past two weeks, the United Nations said Friday, in the same area of the country where a series of mass sex assaults have taken place over the past several months. 

Two separate groups of civilians had been returning from shopping trips to a local market on two different occasions. 

“Rape continues to be a plague, a pandemic which risks spreading across the D.R.C.,” a U.N. spokesman told the New York Times. 

The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the most war-torn parts of the world. More than 5.5 million people have been killed in fighting since 1998, mainly over control of vast mineral resources. Rape has been used systematically as a weapon of enforcement by both the official army and rebel groups. 

It's estimated that someone is raped every eight minutes in the country. 

Earlier this week, in an unprecedented development, a senior army officer was sentenced to no more than 20 years in prison for ordering his troops to beat and rape scores of residents in the town of Fizi in a New Year's Day attack.

It was the first time an army officer has been held accountable in Congo for using mass rape as a weapon against the population. 

In the video above, "8 Minutes in the Congo," actress Sienna Miller reveals the horrors of mass rape in the country.