Photo of Anonciata by Fred de Sam Lazaro for the PBS NewsHour.
Few nations are more endowed with mineral resources than the Democratic Republic of Congo and none has endured a more staggering human cost in the scramble for these riches. The death toll from two decades of civil war -- 5 million -- is second in recent history only to the Holocaust.
But what's it like to survive?
Our recent visit to the eastern city of Goma offered a fleeting glimpse of what the United Nations has called the worst place on earth to be a woman. Consider: one of every 10 Congolese women is a victim of rape.
The facilities of HEAL Africa, an aptly, if optimistically, named non-government group is one of the few places women can go for refuge. Here, we ran into a 30-something mother of four named Anonciata, who interrupted a brief tour I was getting from the medical director to plead her case for more surgery.
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