On 5 May 2014, Al Jazeera interviewed Brigid Inder, Executive Director of Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice, during a panel discussion with Zainab Hawa Bangura, the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, and Victoria Dove Dimandja, Co-Founder of the Congolese Women’s Group, regarding the Minova Trial in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the use of rape as a ‘weapon of war’.

Watch the interview here.

The interview followed the judgment handed down by The Military Operational Court of Goma on 5 May 2012, a court assembled as a result of strong international pressure for action after a 10 day attack on the population of Minova in November of 2012. According to media reports, during the attack more than 1,000 women, men and children were raped by members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) as they were fleeing the rebels of the March 23 Movement (M23).  A UN investigation of the attack documented 135 cases of sexual violence allegedly perpetrated by FARDC soldiers. Of the 39 accused of pillaging, murder, and rape as a war crime in the attack on the Minova population, 25 were low-ranked soldiers, 12 were officers in charge of units, and 4 were lieutenant colonels.

In yesterday’s judgment, only two accused, a lieutenant colonel and a corporal,  were convicted of rape, 25 accused were convicted of pillaging, and 13 were acquitted of all charges.

Watch the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice video on sexual violence in Eastern DRC here.