The Minova Rape Trials

The following photos were taken between February 12th and 19th, 2014, when a temporary courtroom was set up in Minova, a market town that hugs the shore of Lake Kivu in eastern Congo. The 39 Congolese soldiers on trial here were accused of participating in a 10-day run of violence in November 2012. It’s estimated that more than 1,000 women, children and men were raped in this town alone; 37 of the soldiers faced rape charges. The attacks on civilians happened as the government soldiers, members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC), were fleeing the rebels of the March 23 Movement (M23), who had gained control of the key eastern city of Goma. In 2011, the United Nations representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict dubbed the DRC the “rape capital of the world.” The trial in Minova represented an advance in bringing justice to victims of rape — an unprecedentedly large number of government soldiers were accused, and they were tried at such a high level of military court that there would be no possibility of appeal. A ruling on May 5th, 2014 convicted only two of the 37 accused soldiers of rape, one of which received a sentence of life in jail. To victims, the verdict was a great disappointment.