Rape: Weapon of choice in Congo: Rape is a weapon. Most of us know this, having heard countless times that sexual violence is "a tool of war," but then occasionally we are actually confronted with the disturbing reality of that abstract idea, and reminded just how little we actually understand it. For example: News today that nearly 200 Congolese women were raped by Rwandan rebels last month over the span of a single weekend. As some 200 to 400 men raided villages in the picturesque hills of eastern Congo, women and girls were gang raped, sometimes in front of their entire families.