U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with D.R.C. Foreign Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba.

American Secy of State Hillary Clinton is in DR Congo today, meeting with women who have been raped.

By all accounts, DR Congo is one of the worst places in the world to be a woman or girl,” says Anneke Van Woudenberg, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch who has spent the last 10 years focusing on Congo. “These are often soldiers and combatants deliberately targeting women and raping them as a strategy of war, either to punish a community, to terrorize a community or to humiliate them.”

CNN reports on Eugene, Oregon based Sherrlyn Borkgren, leaving her day job as a wedding photographer and freelance journalist, to travel to eastern Congo after receiving a ShootQ Grant, awarding her $10,000 to pursue a project that raises awareness on important global issues.

Reviewing Borkgren’s website, she has a history of activist photography.

Borkgren met a young woman in Congo, a girl initially reporting that she was 15, when “they got me”. In truth she was 9 years old.

More rape in Congo facts, reported in the CNN story:

* Most times the women are raped by at least 2 perpetrators.

* The majority of rapes are against childen, including boys, but primarily females.

* The UN estimates that 200,000 women and girls have been raped in Congo over the last 12 years.

* Rape is escalating, as a weapon of war.

* Often the rapes are committed in front of children and family members, as an additional dishonor and statement of power.

* Male family members are often forced to rape their own children and wives, at gunpoint. Via another source of info, The Mwamba Family Foundation