A new study by the American Journal of Public Health has found that "1,152 women are raped every day in Congo, a rate equal to 48 per hour," the Associated Press reports. National health surveys led to this shocking number which, the AP notes, is "26 times more than the figure reported by the United Nations, which said around 16,000 women were raped in one calendar year." The report suggests that its count is more accurate than previous numbers which had been "derived from rapes reported to police or at health clinics in only a small section of the country." In the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, "women are among the most common targets...and rape is used as a weapon to destroy them, their families and whole communities," UNHCR officer Francesca Fontanini reported in 2009.

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Caitlin Dickson