Democratic Republic of the Congo: The level of violence against children and sexual assaults against women and girls increases
ROME - Reports of gender-based violence against women and girls in North Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, rose 37 percent during the first three months of 2023 compared to the same period a year ago, according to the coordination group Unicef on gender-based violence operating in the area. More than 38,000 cases have been reported for all of 2022 in North Kivu alone. In most of them, the survivors said they were attacked by armed men in and around the camps where they are displaced.
Violence against children. Children and women are the most vulnerable part of society – explains Grant Leaity, Unicef representative in the Democratic Republic of Congo. When forced to flee, they seek refuge in camps for displaced people, but instead of finding protection and safety, they face abuse and pain. The wave of sexual violence against children in the DRC has reached alarming levels - writes Unicef - with reports of cases of sexual exploitation of children as young as 3 years old.
The displaced. Since the beginning of March 2022, more than 1.16 million people have been displaced by clashes between warring parties in North Kivu. Nearly 60 per cent of those forcibly displaced live in overcrowded places and collective shelters just outside Goma, the provincial capital, where the risks of sexual violence are extremely high. Unicef denounces cases of sexual exploitation of children in more than a thousand sites in and around the refugee camps.
The need for psychological support. The impact of sexual assault on the physical and mental health of girls and women can cause serious and lasting harm. According to the Unicef coordination group on gender-based violence, about one in four survivors of sexual violence are in need of specialized medical and psychological support. At the moment, however, support operations for women and girls victims of violence are active only in four refugee camps around Goma.
The lack of medical care. Amnesty International denounced an increase in gender-based violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as the lack of specialized medical care for the victims. Most of the women interviewed by the organization said they received basic medical care at local health facilities following an attack. But none received psychological support for the torture and trauma suffered. Mupenzi, a 21-year-old girl who was raped on November 21 in the city of Bambo after M23 rebels executed her husband, said she was given painkillers, but today she continues to suffer from back and stomach pains and the facilities health care providers have neither specialists nor adequate equipment to help her.
The background. The M23 group, who according to UN reports is supported by Rwanda, claims to be fighting for the implementation of political agreements with the Congolese government, which provided for the safe return of Congolese Tutsi refugees who have been in Rwanda for two decades now. It also fights against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwandan rebel group that established itself in eastern DRC in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The M23 last year took control of a vast territory in North Kivu province, which borders Rwanda and Uganda, prompting half a million people to flee their homes, according to United Nations estimates.
