Angelina Jolie and William Hague visit Congo on anti-rape mission

The Hollywood actress and British Foreign Secretary visit a refugee camp in the Democratic Republic of Comgo as part of campaign to stop rape being used as a tool of war.

Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, a special envoy for the UN refugee agency, travelled to the Nzulo camp near Goma on Monday along with Foreign Secretary William Hague.

The visit to the Nzolo IDP camp north of Goma, was intended to highlight the use of rape in conflict zones, and to raise awareness of the issue on an international level.

"What we're here to do is try to scale it up and make this a world wide focus and it's due time, it's been going on every war, every crisis and it's often an afterthought and it's due time to end this and put an end to impunity and they deserve it," Jolie said.

Mr Hague said that he planned to raise the problem at the annual G8 meeting of foreign ministers in London in April.

"Sexual violence in conflict has to be resolved if conflicts are to be resolved because when rape is used as a weapon of war, it makes communities harder, to bring together and much harder for people to get on with their lives afterwards," he said.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) says it's provided care to more than 2,500 women and girls who have been raped or abused over the last year alone.

The IRC is handing out kits with flashlights and whistles, as well as cleaning products so that women can avoid bathing at creeks where the risk of assault is higher.

Sexual violence is frequently used as a weapon of war by rebel groups that operate in eastern Congo, as well as by Congolese soldiers.

A somewhat unlikely duo, the Foreign Secretary and the actress launched the campaign in May 2012 to prevent sexual violence in conflict zones.