U.N. denounces 700 cases of sexual violence against women and girls in Congo

About 700 women and girls have been victims of sexual violence in the last year amid armed conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, said on Tuesday.

The United Nations human rights head painted a disturbing portrait of the situation in the Central African country, shaken by decades of clashes between the authorities and different armed groups, while drawing attention to the widespread use of sexual violence.

Many of those cases have been investigated by Türk’s office between June 2023 and 2024, according to the United Nations and various media reports.

“Despite some efforts to prevent and investigate cases, sexual violence is spreading – with 700 more victims identified during the reporting period alone,” Turk recently said in an Oct. 8 address to the United Nations. “Armed groups abduct, hold captive and subject women and girls to sexual slavery. Many of them have been killed after being raped. Cases are most certainly under-reported. This is appalling.”

In the period studied, he added, 85% of the various human rights violations occurred in the provinces most affected by armed conflicts in the east of the country, where insurgent groups are responsible for more than 60% of the abuses, “including attacks on civilians and non-military infrastructure such as hospitals or schools.”

Türk recalled that this year more than 940,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in the DRC due to the conflict, bringing the total number of internally displaced people to 6.4 million, while 23.4 million Congolese suffer from food insecurity, the largest number in a single country on the entire planet.

The head of the U.N .Office for Human Rights also accused the Congolese armed forces of human rights violations during their military operations against insurgent groups, saying that continued hate speech and incitement to discrimination “fuel conflict and political tensions.”

Türk urged other countries with influence in these conflicts to push for an end to them, including Rwanda, recalling that it supports at least one of the armed groups operating in the neighboring country, M23 in North Kivu.

He also alluded to the progressive withdrawal of the U.N. mission in the DRC, the MONUSCO, stressing that it must be carried out “responsibly and punctually, and ensuring that the protection of civilians remains a priority.”

On the other hand, the high commissioner expressed concern about the resumption of death sentences in the country, despite the moratorium on the death penalty that governed in the DRC, with 128 new convictions in this regard.

“I ask the authorities not to carry out these sentences, and to end the legislative process already underway aimed at abolishing the death penalty,” Türk said.