I’ve learned some new words.
One is “autocannibalism,” coined in French but equally appropriate in English. It describes what happens when a militia here in eastern Congo’s endless war cuts flesh from living victims and forces them to eat it.
Another is “re-rape.” The need for that term arose because doctors were seeing women and girls raped, re-raped and re-raped again, here in the world capital of murder, rape, mutilation.
This grotesque vocabulary helps answer a question that I’ve had from readers: Why Congo?
The same number of Congolese have died in this conflict as Jews died in World War II. Where is the outrage and where is the international response?
I thought the question ‘Why Congo?’ deserved asking from another angle. Why is this country so endlessly cruel with and to its own people, in ways beyond all decency? Even in a continent of horrors, Congo stands out. Why are things so much worse there?
I’m with #1 – this should evoke international outrage and international action.