Congo-Kinshasa: Sexual Violence in Eastern DRC Is a Continual Emergency

Goma — For years, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams have repeatedly warned of the alarming diploma of sexual violence in eastern DRC. The want of victims and survivors treated by MSF has surged in the past three years, since fighting between the Congolese army, the M23/AFC (Alliance Fleuve Congo) armed community, and their respective allies, resumed. The crisis is particularly acute in North Kivu province, where MSF teams treated an unheard of want of victims and survivors – nearly 40,000 – in 2024.

This worrying trend has continued so far in 2025. Since January, MSF teams have treated an alarmingly excessive want of victims and survivors in the facilities they reinforce in North and South Kivu provinces.

“The context in this region has changed, but the problem of sexual violence–which disproportionately affects women–has not,” says François Calas, head of MSF’s programme in North Kivu.

Sexual violence remains a medical emergency that requires immediate action.

In North Kivu province, Goma’s camps, housing more than 650,000 displaced individuals, were dismantled in February 2025 following the capture of town by M23/AFC. On the opposite hand, MSF teams continue to treat modern victims and survivors of sexual violence each day in facilities in and around town, totalling nearly 7,400 patients between January and April 2025. Twenty kilometres west of Goma, in the small town of Saké, more than 2,400 victims and survivors were treated over the same period.

Since the camps were dismantled, many displaced ladies have been unable or unwilling to come house to their villages and are normally left alone with their adolescents where they are sheltering.

Three males wanted to rape me in front of my husband and eight adolescents. My husband resisted . . . they killed him. Nasha*, a survivor of sexual violence

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“We receive many women who have been abused in or near the host families’ homes or community centres where they are staying,” says Calas. “Very often, they are coerced into sexual acts in exchange for accommodation. Wherever they are, they don’t seem to be safe anywhere.”

As has been the case for years, most assaults reported by victims so far in 2025 have been dedicated beneath the threat or exhaust of a weapon by individuals who may probably now not be identified. Here’s resulting from the large want of individuals carrying weapons – both civilian and military – the proliferation of weapons, and persistent insecurity.

“In Goma, many patients report that they are raped at night during periods of high insecurity; during burglaries that are often accompanied by the kidnapping or even murder of their husbands,” says Calas. “But in some neighbourhoods, these attacks are even committed during the day.”

“Armed men came into our home at around 10.30 p.m.,” says Nasha*, a woman who constructed a safe haven in the courtyard of a faculty after she was displaced. “Some males were killed and some ladies, including me, were raped.

“Three men wanted to rape me in front of my husband and eight children,” says Nasha. “My husband resisted . . . they killed him.”

On the outskirts of Goma and Saké, many victims say they were attacked on the roads or in the fields.

“They asked me to choose between handing over my body or being killed,” says Rika*, a resident of a village about 40 kilometres west of Goma. “They raped me, one after the other.”

In South Kivu province, the situation is also worrying. In Kalehe and Uvira territories, MSF teams have treated nearly 700 victims and survivors of sexual violence since the beginning of 2025. A lot of the accounts gathered checklist acts dedicated at gunpoint.

“We suffered in the fields where we took refuge,” says a woman from a village in the hills around Kamanyola in South Kivu. “The armed men did not allow us to cross the villages. Some women were even raped when they tried to cross to reach health facilities.”

“The figures are underestimated because there are many obstacles to accessing care,” says Luders Leriche, head of MSF medical activities in South Kivu. “Fear of reprisal, stigma, geographical remoteness, and lack of treatment capacity in the facilities.”

The increased or decrease want of cases in certain areas displays available treatment capacity, rather than the scale of the situation in that state.

Essential services beneath threat

The impact of sexual violence – which mainly affects ladies, and even adolescents – has long been known and documented. The want of males who are victims, although much decrease, is also a cause for field. Past the health and psychological impact, the social consequences are devastating: family and social rejection, stigma, divorce, suicidal thoughts, and large remark for survivors to continue living in the locations where they were assaulted.

Regardless of the fresh challenges, we must always now not abandon these ladies and adolescents. Their care ought to be an absolute priority François Calas, head of MSF’s programmes in North Kivu

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The situation is even more worrying because access to treatment services is becoming increasingly now not easy. Several health facilities in North and South Kivu provinces have already sprint out of medicines and kits they want to treat victims and survivors of sexual violence.

“In addition to the disruption of supply chains and the delivery of medicines due to the ongoing conflict, global cuts in humanitarian funding are raising serious concerns about the future,” says Calas. “Despite the current challenges, we must not abandon these women and children. Their care must be an absolute priority.”

In addition to supporting care for victims and survivors, MSF calls on all stakeholders to carry out their utmost to further guarantee the safety of civilians and their access to healthcare.

*Names changed to guard patient anonymity.

MSF teams provide comprehensive medical and psychological care to victims and survivors of sexual violence in Goma, Rutshuru, Masisi, and Walikale in North Kivu, and Kalehe and Uvira in South Kivu. Medical care includes medical and psychological reinforce, preventative treatment against sexually transmitted infections, emergency contraception, vaccines, and safe abortion care. Essentially the most severe cases are referred to specialist hospitals.