UNHCR confirms 6,600 cases of care for rapes in North Kivu during the first three months of 2023

July 15 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has reported that sexual violence care services in the Congolese province of North Kivu, one of the epicenters of armed group activity on the African continent, have received 6,600 cases. of rapes during the first three months of 2023 in what could be “the tip of the iceberg” of a new wave of sexual violence.

UNHCR has collected this data through the so-called coordination network between agencies for the protection of victims of gender violence in the context of the violence unleashed by the numerous armed groups that operate in the territory. “Of the more than 10,000 people who needed care for sexual violence in North Kivu during the first quarter of 2023, 66 percent were rape cases,” said the Deputy High Commissioner for Protection, Gillian Triggs.

Triggs warns, however, that this situation could be “the tip of the iceberg” given that many survivors do not seek medical attention due to threats, fear of retaliation or the impossibility of traveling to care centers due to the prevailing conflict. The vast majority of those responsible for these violations are members of armed groups that assault women and girls when they generally leave security zones in search of firewood or water.

It must be taken into account that, since March 2022, almost three million people have fled armed violence in the north and northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the scene of a “litany of violations of Humanitarian Law, where civilians are murdered and tortured amid arbitrary arrests, looting and widespread destruction”.

In this context, UNHCR expresses its concern about the “decrease in funding levels to respond to this emergency” that affects these 2.8 million internally displaced persons in the region, part of the more than 6.3 million people who are internally displaced across the country “due to the staggering violence, making it one of the largest internal displacement crises in the world.”

“To date,” laments Triggs in this regard, “UNHCR has received only 33% of the 233 million dollars — about 210 million euros — needed to meet their urgent needs.”