Goma, Democratic Republic Of The Congo (CNN) -- The United Nations peacekeeping mission in eastern Congo did not know about a rebel attack and mass rape in that region until more than a week after the events took place, a U.N. peacekeeping mission official said Wednesday.
Hundreds of Rwandan and Congolese rebels raided a network of villages in North Kivu Province between July 30 and August 3, gang-raping nearly 200 women, humanitarian officials said. A U.N. peacekeeper military base was within 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) of the general area of the attacks, in the town of Kibua.
"We had regular patrols in this area during that period," Madnoje Mounoubai, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Congo, told CNN by phone from Kinshasa. "Unfortunately the villagers and the local authorities never brought this issue to our knowledge.
"If we are not informed, it will be difficult for us to know," he added.
Although the U.N. maintains a number of peacekeeping bases in the region, Mounoubai said the U.N. troops in eastern Congo, known under the acronym MONUSCO, did not find out about the attack until August 12, and only after being informed by the International Medical Corps (IMC). CNN
