Jessica Lange

Jessica was amazed by the "transcendent spirit" of the people in DRC

Hollywood actress Jessica Lange is probably best remembered for her leading role in Cape Fear

Now - with the United Nations children's agency Unicef - she's campaigning to expose horrific real life violence and intimidation, in the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa.

Lange, whose movie roles also include Tootsie (with Dustin Hoffman) and The Postman Always Rings twice, has just made her first visit to the area, as a goodwill ambassador for Unicef.

Jessica joined us live on Monday morning to tell us about her experiences. Click on the link above to see the interview.

Unicef says that the threat of rape and other forms of sexual violence has become one of the weapons of war in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

It's estimated that at least 3 million people have died in the war there since 1998 - that's more than any other conflict since the Second World War.

Most of the dead have been the elderly, women and children - in short, the most vulnerable members of society.

Thousands of children have also been recruited as soldiers by all sides in the conflict. In some cases, it's thought that boy soldiers make up one in three of all front line fighters.

According to Unicef, rape is routinely used during military operations to punish the civilian population for supporting the wrong side.

Leaders often don't pay their troops, instead giving them "carte blanche" to loot and rape at will. Very few rape cases are ever followed up.

Because of high rates of HIV infections among soldiers, being raped may effectively be a death sentence for victims, says Unicef.