The top UN envoy in Congo said two peacekeeping patrols were not informed by villagers that mass rapes were taking place and the United Nations is now working to improve communications and prevent any recurrence.

RWANDAN and Congolese rebels gang-raped nearly 200 women and some young boys over four days within miles of a UN peacekeepers’ base in an eastern Congo mining district, an American aid worker and a Congolese doctor said yesterday.