NGO warns of increase in sexual violence in DR Congo

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00:00First, health care workers doing what they can for victims of sexual violence in eastern DR Congo

00:07say that they've seen a distressing increase in cases. Those treating those targeted by

00:14sexual abuse say that since 2021, survivors, both children and adults, have increasingly been

00:21presenting with serious physical damage and psychological trauma after ordeals that local

00:26medics say are carried out by multiple armed groups operating in the region, some of whom

00:31are supported by neighbouring Rwanda or even the Congolese military itself. Emmett Livingston

00:37brings us more from Kinshasa. Women and girls are increasingly being deliberately targeted

00:43by combatants on all sides in the conflict in eastern Congo, according to a report released

00:48on Tuesday by the NGO Physicians for Human Rights. Cases of sexual violence are soaring.

00:53The UN documented 113,000 instances of rape or sexual assault in 2023 and figures from the first

01:00half of 2024 are double what they were this time last year. Conflict is driving the huge rise in

01:05sexual assault and particularly the M23 conflict which erupted three years ago and has displaced

01:10over a million people. Women and girls who constitute the majority of survivors are

01:15particularly vulnerable. The report, which is based on interviews with local health workers,

01:20also found that survivors often only seek medical care after brutally violent encounters such as

01:25gang rape. According to Physicians for Human Rights, there's a need to document the abuses

01:30in order to pave the way for justice. What we know is that while many survivors do not want

01:34to go to court for justice, for survivors who do these cases often fail due to lack of proper

01:40evidence and this is a critical moment to be trying to collect that medical legal evidence

01:45in particular for survivors and to ensure that when they go to a health facility they are not

01:50re-traumatized when they are seeking to have their cases documented and reported. So there is an urgent

01:55need right now to support the health sector to be able to receive survivors of sexual violence

02:01and to be able to ensure that the forensic evidence of the violations that they've occurred

02:05is properly captured. The call for justice comes after this month the International Criminal Court

02:11announced it was renewing its investigations into crimes committed in DR Congo from 2022.

02:17According to Physicians for Human Rights, the perpetrators of sexual violence in the region

02:21range from militia fighters to Congolese soldiers and even UN peacekeepers. Many survivors often

02:27suffer complex medical needs but the conflict has also severely degraded Congo's health system.

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