ABC News' Elizabeth Gorman reports:

In a personal account of her trip to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, Secretary Hillary Clinton reiterates her mission “to banish sexual violence,” in an op-ed she penned for People.com today.

“Our commitment to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence did not begin with my visit to Goma, and it will not end with my departure,” she writes.

Secretary Clinton's article comes two weeks after she began her first official tour of Africa, where was struck by the brutality of the war in the eastern Congo, and where she made her first public appeal to end gender violence there as the secretary of state.

She described the experience as an “incredibly emotional, overwhelming experience.”

In the op-ed Secretary Clinton details a visit to a displacement camp in Goma, where she says that on average, 36 women are raped every day. She also visited a hospital where she spoke to pregnant women who were attacked.

“Many of these people have been robbed of their homes, possessions, families and, worst of all, their dignity,” she says.

Then turning from a personal account to an official one, Secretary Clinton says “the United States condemns these attacks and all those who commit them and abet them. They are crimes against humanity.”

Last week, Secretary Clinton committed the U.S. to $17 million in aid to victims of sexual crime in the DRC, which includes money for the investigation into the crimes and new technologies like cameras.

“We are redoubling our efforts to address the fundamental cause of this violence: the fighting that goes on and on in the eastern Congo. We will be taking additional steps at the United Nations and in concert with other nations to bring an end to this conflict.”

The war in eastern Congo has left 5.4 million dead since 1998, according to Secretary Clinton.

On the same trip, the secretary of state made big headlines for “losing her cool,” after she was asked by a Congolese student for her husband's opinion on African trade deals — rather than her own.

U.S. bank CIT seeks government supportIn “major” speech Clinton will warn Iran about engagement timeline

Explore posts in the same categories: politicaln.wordpress.com

Tags: Clinton, Sexual, Violence, vows

Responses are currently closed, but you can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.