Sexual Slavery
Girls and women ultimately carry the greatest burden in the war, for their bodies are literally taken and used as both weapon and battlefield. Militias and the congolese army alike target women and girls in their attacks on villages and will often take them into bushes to serve as sexual slaves. Others are lured into mining zones by older women who promise to provide for them but, in fact, sell them for sexual exploitation in exchange for small quantities of mineral ore. Other girls are born into the mines, likely doomed to sexual predation from birth. There is a great demand for young girls and teenagers. Girls as young as 12 are prostituted by older women. Over 5,000 women and children have been trafficked from the Philippines, Russia, and Europe and forced into prostitution in bars servicing U.S. military in South Korea. No Less than 55,000 women and children are sex slaves in Cambodia, 35% of which are younger than 18 years of age. Currently, Cambodia's illegal sex trade generates $500 million.