Over 30 women beaten, raped in Congo on New Year's Day

Washington, Jan 7 (ANI): Over 30 women were beaten and raped in eastern Congo on New Year's Day.

The Guardian quoted the aid agency Midecins Sans Frontihres (MSF) as saying that 33 women were raped in Fiji, South Kivu, in the eastern part of the war-torn country.

"Women had been restrained with ropes or beaten unconscious with the butt of a gun before being attacked, some in front of their children. Up to four armed men were involved at a time and homes and shops were looted," she said in a statement," an MSF official, Annemarie Loof, said in a statement.

MSF teams have reportedly treated 14 women at the hospital in Fizi on January 3, and 19 the next day. Two severely wounded women were transferred to Baraka hospital.

Of the two women, one had serious head injuries after being beaten with a rock, while the other was shot in the chest.

According to the United Nations (UN), around 15,000 women were raped in eastern Congo in 2009, and believed that many other cases go unreported.

In September, a UN report condemned Congo's security forces for failing prevent a mass rape last summer. It said that at least 240 women between 30 July and 4 August were raped in Congo's North Kivu province by Rwandan and Congolese rebels in an attack near a UN peacekeepers' base.

The reported victims in previous attacks ranged from a month-old baby boy to a 110-year-old woman. (ANI)