Conflict brings increased sexualized violence to DR Congo

As the M23 rebels advanced on Bukavu during January and February, several villages along Lake Kivu were turned into battlefields. Though fighters from all sides have committed atrocities, civil society groups and activists have identified the Congolese military and allied Wazalendo militias from the North Kivu province as raping women and children.

Survivors receive no justice

Riziki (not her real name) told DW that she survived an attack.

"Three soldiers broke into my house to loot," Riziki said. "One of them came into my bedroom to rape me, but I resisted."

"The others shouted at him to leave, but he refused," Riziki said. "Luckily, my son came to my rescue and they left after they had trashed everything."

The crime took place in February in Kavumu village, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of Bukavu. After that, Riziki, a mother of five, found refuge in Bukavu.

She hoped to receive justice in Bukavu during a planned trial. But then, M23 fighters took the city. Judges, lawyers, defendants, convicts, and even some survivors, fled.

"I started trading," Riziki said. "Unfortunately, armed men came back to the neighborhood where I had fled with my children. They killed two neighbors. We fled again, and I only came back recently."

Survivors silenced

The new occupiers did not improve much: Witnesses reported cases of rape and sexual violence in the M23-occupied cities of Bukavu and Goma — especially targeting married women and girls. Women were also forced to perform sexual acts in exchange for various services, and in many cases, survivors did not press charges out of fear and shame.

One young woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, was wrongfully locked up in a secret service prison. She told DW of her experience there.

"At night, one guards threatened to rape me. When I pushed him away, he hit me. I screamed out in pain. Luckily, the superior officer came, and the guard was whipped. Those who witnessed the scene told me guards usually rape women without their superiors knowing," she said.

Rape as a weapon of war

Doctors Without Borders (MSF), an emergency medical organization, reports that sexual violence cases have exploded, especially in North Kivu, since fighting between the Congolese army and the M23 began.

MSF reports treating almost 40,000 victims there in 2024; between January and April 2025, there were almost 7,400 victims and survivors. In South Kivu, MSF has assisted almost 700 people in the Kalehe and Uvira regions since the start of 2025. According to MSF's report, the vast majority of attacks reported by victims in 2025 were committed at gunpoint, with perpetrators remaining unaccountable.

"The systematic use of rape as a weapon of war is not only a violation of human rights, but also a deliberate strategy to destabilize communities," Amadou Bocoum, DRC country director for Care International, told DW.

Care registered 67,000 cases of sexual violence against women and girls in the first four months of 2025 — a 38% increase from 2024.

"Because of the ongoing fighting," Bocoum said, "more women are being attacked and raped."

"At the same time, the United States government has cut financial aid, which is normally 40%," Bocoum said. "We no longer have emergency drugs to prevent HIV infection after rape in stock at our health centers."

Willermine Ntakebuka, coordinator of the women's rights organization Vision Communautaire, spoke of "alarming figures" in the MSF report. "This war should already be over," Ntakebuka said. "Thirty years of war are too much, with all the consequences suffered by the civilian population, especially women and girls. Women should not have to pay the high price of armed conflict."