(Kinshasa) Doctors Without Borders (MSF) treated an “unprecedented” number of victims of sexual violence last year in Congo, the humanitarian organization said on Monday. Most of this violence took place in the east of the country, according to the charity, where members of armed groups fighting for power are the alleged perpetrators.
More than 25,000 victims and survivors of sexual violence – or more than two victims per hour – were treated by Doctors Without Borders in 2023, according to the organization’s report. This is by far the highest number ever recorded in Congo, according to the report.
The vast majority of victims were treated in displacement camps near Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, in the east of the country.
“According to our patients’ testimonies, two-thirds of them were attacked at gunpoint,” Christopher Mambula, the group’s Congo program manager, said in the report.
Eastern Congo is gripped by armed violence, as more than 120 armed groups fight for power, land and valuable mineral resources while others try to defend their communities.
Some armed groups have been accused of massacres, rapes and other human rights violations. The violence has displaced some 6 million people in the east.
Congo alleges that neighboring Rwanda is involved in aggression and war crimes in the region. Alongside American and UN experts, he also accuses Rwanda of providing military support to the armed rebel group M23.
Rwanda denies the accusations, but admitted in February that it had troops and missile systems in eastern Congo to ensure its security. Congolese forces have strengthened near the border.
The March 23 Movement, or M23, is a rebel military group made up mainly of Tutsis that split from the Congolese army a little over a decade ago. They launched a massive offensive in 2012 and took control of the provincial capital of Goma, near the border with Rwanda, the same city they are threatening again.
Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch said the Rwandan and Congolese army had killed residents of displaced camps, committed rape and obstructed humanitarian aid.
“If the massive presence of armed men in and around displaced people’s sites explains this explosion of sexual violence, the inadequacy of the humanitarian response and the inhumane living conditions in these sites fuel the phenomenon,” declared Médecins Sans Frontières in his report.
A high number of sexual assaults have also been recorded this year by the charity, which treated more than 17,000 victims and survivors between January and May in North Kivu province alone.