Red Cross Envoy: The conflict in Congo has worsened, with a sharp increase in sexual violence and injuries

FILE – Thousands of people fleeing the ongoing conflict between government forces and M-23 rebels reach the entrance to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern city of Goma, February 7, 2024. The decades-long conflict in Congo’s mineral-rich east has since “deteriorated dramatically” in early 2022 and has become even worse since October last year, with a sharp increase in sexual violence, the number of injuries and the recruitment of children, the country’s top Red Cross official said on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa, File)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The decades-long conflict in Congo’s mineral-rich east has “deteriorated dramatically” since early 2022 and worsened since October last year, with a sharp increase in sexual violence, injuries and the recruitment of children. The country’s highest Red Cross official said this on Wednesday.

Francois Moreillon called Congo a “double crisis”, with the last 30 years of conflict weakening the capacity of the government, including at the local level, to provide basic services such as water, education and food. When it came to protecting civilians, Moreillon said the crisis was “extremely acute”.

Eastern Congo has been plagued by armed violence, as more than 120 groups fight for power, land and valuable mineral resources, while others try to defend their communities. Some armed groups have been accused of mass killings.

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, known as the ICRC, said “all indicators have gone through the roof” since October 1, when fighting resumed between Congolese government forces with their allies and the M23 rebel group.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, together with American and UN experts, accuses neighboring country Rwanda of providing military support to M23. Rwanda denies this claim, but in February effectively admitted that it has troops and missile systems in eastern Congo to ensure its security, indicating a build-up of Congolese forces near the border.

Moreillon told several reporters at the office of the UN envoy to the ICRC that the number of displaced Congolese has risen from 5.6 million in early 2022 to almost 7.4 million now, making Congo “one of the most serious displacement crises in the world.”

He said another escalating indicator is the level of sexual violence. In Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo, he said incidents of sexual violence rose 90% in the first half of 2024 compared to 2023 — from 7,500 incidents last year to about 15,000 this year.

Moreillon cited the case of a woman in the care of the ICRC who was raped twice, explaining that women went in groups to collect wood “and took condoms in an attempt to convince the rapist to wear them while they were being raped. ” This was not only to prevent them from becoming pregnant or contracting sexually transmitted diseases, but also to prevent them from being ordered to leave the house if their husbands found out they had been raped, he said.

Moreillon said sexual violence can be not only a weapon of war, but also a product of decades of war in which “anyone with a gun feels they can do whatever they want” – and the fact that there is impunity for these crimes “doesn’t help. ”

The ICRC has also witnessed an increase in child recruitment, with estimates that it has increased by around 80% in some areas. “That could be just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

A key reason is that fighting has become so intense that armed groups need new recruits to replace dead fighters, he said, and children can be convinced or coerced.

Several children he interviewed said they joined because they thought they would get respect, he said. If families do not give their children to armed groups, they are “taxed” and then handed over to the recruiters.

Another indicator is the number of injured civilians seeking help, Moreillon said.

The ICRC is supporting three hospitals in eastern Congo, including one in Goma, where it had to increase the number of surgical teams from two last year to three this year, working around the clock, he said.

Last year, Moreillon said, 1,050 cases were treated at the Goma hospital, and in February this year alone the ICRC treated 350 cases – a third of last year’s caseload in just one month.

“So that is a clear indication of the severity of the intensity of the conflict,” he said.

The ICRC head in Congo said what has changed is that more sophisticated weapons are being used along with more fighting in crowded urban environments.

He said 45% of those injured by weapons are civilians, and about 40% of wounds are caused by shrapnel, which was not the case last year when most wounds were caused by bullets or knives.

And what about the dead? Moreillon said it is very difficult to get figures, but if the number of injured “increases dramatically”, so should the number of deaths.

Moreillon appealed to donors to help Congolese in need, saying his budget for Congo this year – 85 million Swiss francs ($95 million) – is only 22% funded.