S*xual violence against children has dramatically increased in the war-torn eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as reported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)’s Executive Director Catherine Russell.
She revealed that in the week following the fall of Goma city to M23 rebels, one-third of the reported r*pe victims were children, a staggering five-fold increase in cases documented by 42 health facilities.
Medical staff are facing shortages of essential medications that help prevent HIV in r*pe survivors, a situation worsened by the sudden cut in US foreign aid, which has severely affected humanitarian efforts in the Great Lakes region.
Russell also pointed out that children as young as 12 are coerced into combat roles, worsening the ongoing phenomenon of child-soldier recruitment. Many children have become separated from their families amidst the chaos, with more than 1,100 identified in the first two weeks of February. The constant threat of bombardment and gunfire has left Congolese youth vulnerable to abduction, recruitment and s*xual violence.
For over three decades, s*xual violence against women and girls has marked the Western-backed resource conflict in DRC. Gathering accurate statistics is challenging, as many victims hesitate to come forward due to the stigma attached.
The UN reports that more than 700,000 people have been displaced since January, adding to the about 7 million internally displaced as of last year. By 2010, around 6 million had lost their lives, with many more uncounted since then, in a brutal Western-backed resource war involving 120 foreign-backed militia groups competing for control over DRC’s estimated $24 trillion in mineral resources. M23 stands out as the most organised of these rebel factions, with multiple UN reports indicating Western-backed Rwanda and Uganda support them.
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgy0d3pgv0o
https://www.icrc.org/en/document/sexual-violence-survivors-democratic-republic-congo