Title: Sexual violence still rife in eastern DRC, MSF says
During the second half of April, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) observed a significant increase in victims of sexual violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. More than 670 people were taken care of by the local MSF branch, particularly in the Goma region. The teams recorded an average of 48 new victims per day, of which around 60% were said to have been attacked in the previous 72 hours.
This violence was perpetrated mainly by armed men, and mainly targets women. The victims are often assaulted when they leave the camps for the displaced, where they live in difficult and precarious conditions, in search of food or firewood. More than half of the victims said they had suffered violence at the hands of armed groups.
This situation is largely due to the lack of sufficient humanitarian aid to meet the needs of displaced populations, more than a million of whom have fled their villages in the past year. More than 600,000 people live in informal camps around Goma, in dire conditions that force them to go out regularly to look for something to survive.
MSF has strongly denounced the insufficiency of humanitarian aid on the spot, which does not allow the teams to supervise and protect these vulnerable populations. According to Jason Rizzo, emergency coordinator for MSF, the situation is catastrophic and requires an urgent and concerted intervention by all parties concerned.