HARARE - Some time ago, the head of the United Nations refugee agency, Antonio Guterres, said of the Democratic Republic of Congo: "Nobody in the outside world feels threatened, and so the international community is not really paying attention."
Not anymore: currently, Congo's eastern province of North Kivu is in the headlines almost every day. Last August, fighting to the north of the provincial capital Goma flared up again, provoking a major humanitarian crisis that has no end in sight.



NAIROBI - As a child in rural Kenya, I was a secret admirer of female genital mutilation. I was swayed by talk of friends and elders about how once a girl undergoes "the cut," she gains respect and grown men consider her suitable for marriage. Perhaps these were the reasons why, as a girl of 13, I longed to be "circumcised" and become a "real woman."