TWT is running a week-long expose that began today entitled “The Lost Story of the Lost Continent: How Rape Is Used as a Tool of War in Congo.”

The Times dispatched its U.N. correspondent Betsy Pisik and award-winning photojournalist Mary Calvert for six weeks to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo to investigate the causes and consequences of a rape epidemic that is destroying the social fabric of communities and undermining hopes that Congo can overcome its history as a failed state. Their work was funded in part by a grant Calvert obtained from the White House News Photographers Association.

The Times is committing nearly two dozen pages of its newspaper over three days to its coverage of the crisis, including an eight-page special section tied to today’s front-page story.

“So much of the world has focused on the crisis in Darfur, and rightfully so. But the swath of personal destruction in Congo is exponentially bigger and its victims get disproportionately less attention,” Executive Editor John Solomon said.

The Congo series follows a similar project in August that documented the rapid rise of mental illness among Katrina’s victims in New Orleans.

TWT has created a special Web landing page to capture all of its multimedia work, including photos, video, audio and graphics and will create companion pieces on its radio and TV services. Check it out here.