Angelina Jolie Congo: Actress Angelina Jolie was in the eastern Congo on Monday to meet with women and girls amid rampant sexual violence.
GOMA, Congo—Angelina Jolie is meeting with women and girls in eastern Congo, where sexual violence is rampant.
Jolie, a special envoy for the U.N. refugee agency, traveled to the Nzulo camp near Goma on Monday along with British Foreign Secretary William Hague.
The International Rescue Committee says it’s provided care to more than 2,500 women and girls who have been raped or abused over the last year alone. The IRC is handing out kits with flashlights and whistles, as well as cleaning products so that women can avoid bathing at creeks where the risk of assault is higher.
Sexual violence is frequently used as a weapon of war by rebel groups that operate in eastern Congo, as well as by Congolese soldiers.
[Related: Warlord Surrenders: Congo’s ‘The Terminator’ Shows up at US Embassy]
Jolie also joined U.K. foreign envoy William Hague to visit Rwanda on Monday to build a coalition to deal with rape and sexual violence in war zones, reported AFP.
“This visit is about hearing first hand from people who have endured rape and sexual violence during the conflict in the eastern DRC,” Jolie told the news agency. “We want to learn the lessons that their experience holds for how the world can protect thousands of women, men and children at risk of rape in many other conflict zones.”
Hague and Jolie are calling on the Group of Eight, or G8, countries to come to an agreement that sexual violence and rape are in violation of the Geneva Convention that oversees warfare.
“More often than not the international community looks away, the perpetrators of these brutal crimes walk free and the cycle of injustice and conflict is repeated. We have to shatter this culture of impunity,” Hague said.
Their campaign will head to the U.N. Security Council in June.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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