DRC bans documentary on rape by militia, army

Butembo - The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Thursday banned a documentary on a gynaecologist helping women raped during armed conflict, saying it contained "unfounded accusations" against the army.

The film The Man Who Mends Women, which was released in Belgium in April, portrays Denis Mukwege, who won the 2014 Sakharov human rights award for treating thousands of rape victims.

Human rights activists say rape is routinely used to subjugate local populations in eastern DRC, where dozens of armed groups compete for control over the region's rich natural resources and fight with the army.

Both militia and the army have been accused of rape, including gang rape.

Some of the testimonies included in the documentary were "deliberate falsifications", the government said in a statement.

"I'm not making any accusation," Thierry Michel, co-director of the film, told the magazine Jeune Afrique. It was UN reports and witnesses appearing on the film that talked about rape, he added.