When 14-year-old Judith, not her real name, was raped in Goma, her father decided not to report the matter to the authorities. Instead, the family of the victim sat down with that of the rapist and hammered out a so-called friendly settlement. Irène Ntambuka, programme director at Dynamique des Femmes Juristes, a local NGO that provides legal aid to rape victims, says that such agreements in sexual violence cases are becoming more common, largely because of a lack of trust in the local justice system.

After years of armed conflict, women in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo are playing a leading role in its economic recovery with the help of vocational training centres which keep them fed while they learn new skills. Famiya Omari, a 50-year-old mother of five, once trudged for miles each day to ply fresh cassava. Now, she sells the bread and soap that she has learnt to make at a vocational centre run by a local NGO, the Reflection Committee For Development and Social Promotion (CORDPS).

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights organisations and activists have expressed concerns over the the Sexual Practices Against Nature Bill presented before the national parliament of the Democratic Republic of aiming to criminalise homosexuality and zoophilia as sexual practices against nature. Jean Bedel Kaniki, President of Groupe Hirondelles Bukavu, an LGBTI organisation in the DRC confirmed that on the 22 October 'the bill was judged admissible by the majority of the parliament and was sent to the socio-cultural committee that will discuss its permissibility in terms of the provisions and principles of the constitution before its promulgation'.