Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has raised the alarm over the rising number of sexual violence cases in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Development Diaries reports that clashes between the Congolese army, March 23 Movement, and the many armed groups in North Kivu have led more than a million people to flee their homes since March 2022.
MSF, in a statement, said it has treated more than 670 victims of sexual violence in just two weeks in camps for displaced people around Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu.
Over 600,000 people have found refuge in camps on the outskirts of the city of Goma, where conditions are often overcrowded and unsanitary.
It is understood that displaced people in the area are extremely vulnerable as nearly 60 percent of victims were attacked less than 72 hours before reaching MSF clinics.
‘Each day, an average of 48 new victims of sexual violence are being treated by our teams in the camps for displaced people’, MSF Emergency Coordinator in North Kivu, Jason Rizzo, said in the statement.
‘For months, our teams have been treating a high number of cases, but never before on the catastrophic scale of recent weeks’.
Almost all the victims treated by MSF teams are understood to be women and the majority recount being attacked while searching for food or firewood outside of the displacement camps.
Development Diaries calls on the authorities in Congo to ensure vulnerable people, especially those already displaced in camps by armed violence, are protected and get humanitarian support.
Photo source: Oxfam
