"Ubakaji" is the Congolese word for rape. It is borrowed from the language of neighboring Tanzania; Congolese culture itself did not openly speak of rape until very recently.
An estimated 500,000 women and girls have been victims of sexual violence since the Second Congo War began in 1996. In this photo essay by Robin Hammond, we'll meet some of them, including rape survivors as young as 9-years-old, teenagers impregnated by their rapists, and a woman whose eyes were gouged out by her attackers.
Photographs by Robin Hammond
