Concerns About Shocking Instances of Sexual Violence in the DRC are Voiced by the UN

Volker Türk, the UN human rights chief, voiced serious worries on Friday, February 7, about the further escalation of violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) due to the current M23 attack, which Rwanda supports.

At a Special Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, he stated that “the worst may be yet to come, for the people of the eastern DRC, but also beyond the country’s borders, if nothing is done.

As UN Member States considered establishing a fact-finding mission to look into the attacks by the M23 and their allies that have killed nearly 3,000 people and injured 2,880 since January 26 with heavy weapons used in populated areas, and intense fighting against the armed forces of the DRC and their allies,” the High Commissioner stated.

This mineral-rich area has been insecure for decades due to the growth of armed organisations, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to leave their homes and seek refuge in displacement camps. Hostilities are still going on there. When Tutsi majority M23 forces took over portions of North Kivu, including the region around Goma, and moved towards South Kivu and Bukavu, the second city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, in late January, the fighting intensified.

In addition to denouncing Rwanda’s military assistance to the M23 armed group, a draft resolution presented to the Special Session the 37th since the Council’s founding in 2006 called on both Rwanda and the M23 to immediately halt their advance and grant life-saving humanitarian access.

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