UN raises concerns over alarming cases of sexual violence in the DRC

UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Friday expressed profound concerns at the ongoing violent escalation in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) caused by the ongoing Rwanda-backed M23 offensive.

“If nothing is done, the worst may be yet to come, for the people of the eastern DRC, but also beyond the country’s borders,” he told a Special Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Since 26 January, nearly 3,000 people have been killed and 2,880 injured in attacks by the M23 and their allies “with heavy weapons used in populated areas, and intense fighting against the armed forces of the DRC and their allies”, the High Commissioner said, as UN Member States weighed setting up a fact-finding mission to investigate extreme rights violations still being committed in the DRC provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu.

Hostilities continue to occur in this mineral-rich region that has been unstable for decades amid a proliferation of armed groups, which has forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes for many years and seek safety in displacement camps. Fighting escalated in late January when Tutsi majority M23 fighters seized control of parts of North Kivu, including areas near Goma, and advanced towards South Kivu and the eastern DRC’s second city of Bukavu.

A draft resolution circulated before the Special Session – the 37th since the Council was created in 2006 – also condemned Rwanda’s military support of the M23 armed group and called for both Rwanda and M23 to halt their advance and to allow lifesaving humanitarian access immediately.

Hospitals targeted

Addressing UN Member States, Mr. Türk noted that two hospitals in Goma had been bombed on 27 January, killing and injuring multiple patients, including women and children. In a mass prison break at Muzenze Prison in Goma on the same day, at least 165 female inmates were reportedly raped and most were later killed in a fire under unclear circumstances, he said, citing the authorities.

“I am horrified by the spread of sexual violence, which has been an appalling feature of this conflict for a long time. This is likely to worsen in the current circumstances,” the UN rights chief continued, adding that UN staff were now verifying multiple allegations of rape, gang rape and sexual slavery in eastern DRC’s conflict zones.

Echoing those concerns, Bintou Keita, Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the DRC and chief of the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC (MONUSCO) told the Council that dead bodies still lie in the streets of Goma, which M23 fighters now control. The situation is “catastrophic”, she continued.

“While I am speaking, youth are being subjected to forced recruitments and human rights defenders, civil society actors and journalists have also become a major population at risk. MONUSCO continues to receive requests for individual protection from them as well as from judicial authorities under threat and at risk of reprisals from M23 in areas under its control.”

The MONUSCO chief also warned about the health risks linked to the ongoing fighting, “especially the resurgence of cholera and the high risk of Mpox, the sudden interruption of children’s schooling, and the rise of conflict-related sexual violence and gender-based violence.”

According to latest reports, medical personnel face electricity cuts and lack fuel for their generators for basic services, including morgues, Ms. Keita continued. “I again call on international community to advocate for humanitarian assistance to reach Goma immediately.”

In response to the ongoing crisis, DRC’s Minister of Communications and Media, Patrick Muyaya Katembwe, spoke out against the continued logistical, military and financial support of countries including Rwanda “to armed groups operating on our territory.”

The minister maintained that Rwanda’s support for the M23 had fuelled the violence in eastern DRC “for more than 30 years, exacerbating the war for reasons linked to the exploitation of the strategic mining resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

Dismissing that claim, Ambassador James Ngango of Rwanda to the United Nations in Geneva, insisted that an large-scale attack against Rwanda was “imminent.”

He accused the “Kinshasa-backed coalition” of stockpiling a large number of weapons and military equipment near Rwanda’s border, mostly in or around Goma airport. “These weapons include rockets, kamikaze drones, heavy artillery guns capable of shooting precisely within the Rwandan territory. The weapons were not turned at the theatre of operations against the M23, rather they were pointed directly at Rwanda,” he said.

Highlighting the need for international efforts to end the long-running conflict, UN rights chief Mr. Türk insisted on the need to understand its global political and economic links. “The population in the eastern DRC is suffering terribly, while many of the products we consume or use, such as mobile phones, are created using minerals from the east of the country. We are all implicated.”