As the M23 rebels proceeded on Bukavu during January and February 2025, several villages along the Kivu Lake were converted into a battlefield. While fighters from all sides have committed atrocities, civil society groups and activists have excluded Kangoli military and affiliated Wazlando militia from North Kivu province to rape women and children.
The remaining people do not get any justice
Riziki (not his real name) what is just one survivor of an attack.
“Three soldiers broke to rob my house. One of them got into a thunder to rape me, but I protested,” she explains.
“The other shouted to leave her, but she refused,” she says. “Fortunately, my son came to my rescue and they left after trash.”
The crime took place in Kavumu village in February 2025, about 30 kilometers north of Bukavu. After that, five -year -old mother Risiki has found shelter in Bukavu.
She hoped to get justice in Bukevu during a planned show test. But then, the M23 fighters took the city. Judge, lawyer, defendant, guilty, and even some survivors fled.
“I started the business. Dayable, the armed men came back to the neighborhood, where I had run away with my children. They killed two neighbors. We ran away again, and I only recently returned,” Rizi told DW.
Silent people silent
The new officers did not do much: Eyewitnesses reported cases of rape and sexual violence in the M-23-Octicide cities of Buwavu and Goma-excitement against married women and girls. Women were forced to perform sexual functions in exchange for various services, and in many cases, the remaining people did not press the allegations from the flair and shed.
A young woman who wants to be anonymous, was wrongly lodged in a secret service jail. He told DW of his experience.
“At night, a guard threatened to rape me. When I pushed him away, he hit me. I shouted in pain. Fortunately, the superior officer came, and the guard was killed. People who saw the scene told me that he was usually raped without knowing his seniors.”
Rape as a weapon of war
Doctors for the Emergency Medical Organization say that there has been an explosion in cases of sexual violence, especially in North Kivu, began after fighting between Kangoli Army and M33.
MSF says it treated around 40,000 The victim there in 2024; And between January 2025, 7,400 victims and survived. In South Kivu, MSF has assisted around 700 people in Kalehe and Uveera regions, which is in early 2025. According to the MSF report, most of the attacks reported by the victims in 2025 were carried out at the tip of the gun, the criminals remaining.
DW said, “The systematic use of rape in the form of war is not only a violation of human rights, but also a deliberate strategy to destabilize communities,” Amdou Bokoum, director of DRC Country for Care International, told DW.
Care says it registered 67,000 cases of sexual violence against women and girls in the first four months of 2025 – a jump of 38% at 2024.
Funding cut barrier emergency assistance
“Due to the ongoing battle, more women are being attacked and raped,” Bokom explains DW.
“At the same time, the United States government has cut financial assistance, which is normal.
Women’s Rights Organization Vision Community Coordinator Wilmin Natkebuka, in view of the MSF reports and demands, talks about “dangerous figures”: “This shoulder must be over already. 30 years of wars are very high, all civilian population, as a result of special women and girls.
Silja customized by German by Fahalich
Edited by Cai Nebe
