UN official has said that the UN troops failed over 500 women and children who were raped in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo last month.
Atul Khare, under secretary general for peacekeeping operations warned of a growing 'culture of sexual violence' in the stricken region where rival groups are fighting for control of gold and mineral wealth.
UNSC members have expressed outrage over the mass rapes of at least 242 women and children in 13 villages and criticised the failure of the UN peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO, to prevent the attacks.
And on 30 July, a campaign of rape, violence and pillaging took place in Luvungi, a mountainous settlement of around 2,000 inhabitants in the Nord-Kivu province.
Local authorities believe up to 384 women were raped that night.
Nongovernmental organisation International Medical Corps said they had treated more than 242 victims in their local health clinic.
A UN patrol group passed through Luvungi on 2 August but only took witness statements for the pillaging.
More than 350 rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) accompanied by local Mai Mai militia raped 284 females aged between 13 and 80.
Luvungi is 70km from Walikale, the main town in the region of the same name, is isolated with erratic telecommunications links, no electricity and just one road leading to the provincial capital Goma.
FDLR and local militiamen Mai-Mai, who control the region's gold and mineral wealth, took advantage of its vast forest area to carry out the attacks without fear of being found.
The FDLR has been active in eastern DR Congo since the mid-1990s and is feared for its brutality.
The older members of FDLR are accused by Rwanda of taking part in the 1994 genocide of 800,000 people, mainly minority Tutsis, in the neighbouring country.
UN Special representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Margot Wallstroem has threatened to have people suspected of these rapes prosecuted for war crimes.
A UN official has said the DR Congo government is primarily responsible for security, but said Clearly we have also failed. Our actions were not adequate, resulting in the unacceptable brutalisation of the villages of the area. We must do better.'
He added, 'I feel personally guilty to the people who have suffered this brutalization.'
