( CNN ) -- Some of the bravest people I know are cowering today in eastern Congo , wondering where their supporters are . While our daily news zeroes in on Syria and Gaza , the fiscal cliff and Christmas sales , our friends in the war-ravaged part of the immense , mineral-rich Democratic Republic of the Congo are once again convulsed in a conflict they did not choose . A resident from Goma , in North Kivu province , who for security reasons must not be named , sent me a heartbreaking e-mail accompanied by a photo taken by The Associated Press ' Jerome Delay . It shows a tiny girl leading a long line of displaced women who carry enormous loads on their backs , a look of utter desperation on her face as tears stream down her cheeks . The e-mail says , `` This girl is a future mother , barely four years old and she must walk many kilometers due to the attack on her village . She cries , but who is listening ? No one takes care of her , no one to console her . Her mother ca n't help because she is carrying their entire household 's possessions on her back . Just one attack on this column of displaced people and she will find herself alone in the jungle . We only ask for peace . It 's unacceptable that we deny her the chance to grow up and become a mother one day . '' It is shocking how ill-prepared the international community has been for this latest round of violence in Africa . A leading hospital in Goma , where guerrilla forces have been poised to enter the city for months , sent desperate e-mails to friends around the world pleading for antibiotics , painkillers , plaster and bandages , as international agencies focused on evacuating their staff members from border areas . E-mails I received showed bloody , shattered limbs of children and badly wounded patients with expressions of horror and despair . Many call Congo the `` rape capital of the world , '' and when you work as I have with the doctors and nurses who have treated tens of thousands of rape survivors , it 's hard not to acknowledge some truth to this terrible epithet . For the past 16 years , armed factions supplied by Rwanda , Uganda and the ragtag and ill-paid army of the Congolese government itself have carved up the Congolese provinces of North and South Kivu , marauding , pillaging , killing , abducting children to be soldiers and , yes , gang-raping women and girls as well as men and boys . All the while , gold , diamonds and precious coltan ore have continued to be extracted and exported as the people of the Kivus have suffered without electricity , roads , schools and good government . The single largest U.N. peace-keeping force in the world , MONUSCO , stood by virtually impotent last week as some 1,500 M23 rebels overran Goma . Congolese troops , many of them hungry and penniless , ran for the hills . And while we gathered around our Thanksgiving tables , the people of Goma hid in their homes or fled . For months , refugees from North Kivu have streamed across the border into Rwanda as the rebels , led by indicted war criminal Bosco Ntaganda , have mounted increasingly brazen attacks on North Kivu villages . While driving across the Rwandan border into Goma in May , I saw buses and cars loaded with families carrying their meager possessions , once again fleeing chaos in their country and renewed attacks by the M23 rebels . Last month when I traveled to South Kivu , Goma was under curfew . In Goma , people who have bravely defended the rule of law and supported human rights for more than a decade were terrorized into silence amid reports of targeted assassinations and disappearances . The Goma prison emptied out mass murderers and rapists , previously convicted by courageous magistrates in the mobile courts set up across the region in recent years . MONUSCO reported that it was airlifting the magistrates to safety , an ominous sign that justice is giving way to guns . In 2008 , the International Criminal Court accused Bosco Ntaganda of conscripting children and called for his immediate arrest . The court 's prosecutor has stated that he is as dangerous a war criminal as the Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony . Once again , governments responsible for setting up and subsidizing the international rule of law have failed these very institutions . Meanwhile , in South Kivu 's capital of Bukavu , a two-hour boat ride across the lake , residents prepared for the unknown . Who launched the brazen armed attack in October on our beloved medical colleague , Dr. Denis Mukwege , whose hospital near Bukavu has treated tens of thousands of rape survivors ? Was this a warning shot ? Amazingly , in the midst of the current convulsions , military magistrates in this city are prosecuting rapes and pillaging by their own government 's troops as they defend the rule of law despite the chaos . As one of the magistrates told me Wednesday , `` It 's our country , and we will defend justice here until it 's no longer safe . '' The courage and commitment to justice and human rights of our Congolese counterparts are an incredible inspiration . Their actions must inspire not only our admiration but our reciprocal commitment to respond with equal political courage and whatever other resources we can bring to bear . Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Susannah Sirkin .
Violence erupted in eastern Congo , creating a humanitarian crisis . Susannah Sirkin : The international community can not stand by and do nothing . She says there 's truth to the saying that Congo is the `` rape capital of the world '' Sirkin : The courage of the Congolese should inspire us to take political action .