from JEAN KASSONGO in Kinshasa, DRC
DRC Bureau
KINSHASA, (CAJ News) – DOCTORS have reported an influx of sexual violence perpetrated by the military, armed groups and United Nations (UN) peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
According to the Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), the widespread and severe sexual violence – at least 113 000 cases reported by the UN in 2023 alone – demands immediate action by the DRC government, neighboring countries, and the global community to support survivors and end the violence.
The organisation has launched a report titles, “Massive Influx of Cases”: Health Worker Perspectives on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
“Our report establishes a staggering influx of people who have suffered conflict-related sexual violence – including rape and sexual slavery – being treated in health facilities across eastern DRC,” said Payal Shah, report co-author and director of research, legal, and advocacy at PHR.
The official said survivors were facing sexual violence due to increasing insecurity and insufficient food and cooking wood in internally displacement persons (IDP) camps.
“Yet clinicians lack the resources to treat this growing number of survivors and ensure forensic documentation for accountability,” Shah said.
In the PHR report, health workers reported that the sexual violence resulted in a wide range of medical and psychological harms, including lacerations, paralysis, sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Medicines San Frontiers (MSF) reports that it treated more than 17 000 cases of sexual violence in only five provinces of DRC in the first five months of 2024.
The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights (also reports 940 000 people displaced in 2024 alone, bringing the total to 6,4 million people displaced in DRC.
Eastern DRC’s decades-long conflict escalated in North and South Kivu in 2021 with the re-emergence of the M23 rebel group, which UN experts have identified as being controlled by Rwanda.
– CAJ News