New reports from Physicians for Human Rights and Doctors Without Borders document a 'massive influx' of sexual violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. What can be done to stop it?
An aerial photograph from 2023 of the Rusayo camp for internally displaced people on the outskirts of Goma in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Hundreds of thousands of Congolese have found refuge around Goma after fleeing fighting further north. Two new reports document a 'staggering' increase in rapes over the past year.She’s worried about robbery – but also far more.
The report cites nearly 90,000 documented rapes in 2023 in DRC, up from 40,000 in 2021. Zia-Zarifi believes this is a severe undercount. The impacts of sexual assault are “massive and catastrophic,” says a doctor in the eastern DRC, who requested anonymity because he’s afraid speaking will jeopardize his safety since health facilities have recently come under attack from militias. He says many patients he’s treated have been not only traumatized but deeply stigmatized because of the sexual assault. “When a mother is raped, her husband will throw her out of his house,” he says through an interpreter.
One key factor is that, in 2023, the newly elected DRC government told the U.N. to withdraw their peacekeeping forces, deeming them ineffective and unpopular. Thea resolution to end its mission. This sequence of events came despite escalating violence. Patrick Muyaya Katembwe, the spokesperson for the DRC government, was not available for an interview with NPR.
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