30 Congolese deportees ‘gang-raped by Angolan officials in dungeon’

LUSAKA - At least 30 women were kept as prisoners in a dungeon-like structure and gang-raped over several weeks at the Congo and Angola border before being left naked in scrubland.

According to The Scotsman, the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that over 150 Congolese nationals arrived in Bandundu Province in southwestern Congo after being expelled from Angola.

Congolese frequently cross the border to work as labourers in the mining districts that line the boundary between the two nations in Central Africa.

OCHA spokeswoman Stefania Trassari said the men in the group were brutalised and at least 30 of the women were repeatedly raped when they were expelled from the country earlier this month.

The deportees told the UN that Angolan authorities held them in a dingy building, and added that at least three were killed, including two men and a 27-year-old woman, after being raped repeatedly.

The deportees were expelled after being held for at least two weeks, Trassari said. (ANI)