Siku ya Mazingira (SYAM), a local civil society organisation (CSO) operating in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has said there is an urgent need to support the victims of sexual exploitation and abuse in the country.
SYAM is an implementing partner CSO for the United Nations (UN) Trust Fund in support of victims of sexual exploitation and abuse.
It is understood that SYAM has been working on the issue of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN personnel in DRC since 2007.
‘Around that time, many people in the DRC were internally displaced because of conflict and took refuge near MONUSCO camps in North Kivu and eastern provinces’, UN News quoted SYAM’s Project Manager, Delu Lusambia, as saying.
‘They were left without jobs, without any means to sustain their lives. As a result, many women and girls exchanged sexual favours with UN peacekeepers for money and food. Economic vulnerability and power imbalances can expose people to the risk of sexual misconduct’.
Data in a 2021 Conflict and Health report shows that between 2010 and 2021, the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) received 224 sexual exploitation and abuse allegations.
An independent panel commissioned by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2021 also identified more than 80 alleged cases of sexual abuse, including allegations implicating 20 WHO staff members in DRC.
The sexual abuse and exploitation cases were allegedly carried out by WHO staff during the UN health agency’s response to an Ebola outbreak in the country.
SYAM said it conducted surveys and heard many testimonies about sexual exploitation from 2007 to 2016 in DRC.
‘We realised the urgent need to support victims, especially those who had children born of sexual abuse by peacekeepers’, Lusambia said.
‘That is why we created vocational training centres for women and girls where we train them in pastry-making, tailoring, bread-making, hairdressing, and agriculture’.
Lusambia also said SYAM had recorded changes in the culture and attitudes of local communities where they work to raise awareness about sexual exploitation and abuse and how to report these wrongs.
‘Now the reporting of such cases has become a common practice. Whenever they see suspicious activities, the communities speak up to raise concerns with MONUSCO’, he added.
‘I am proud of the impact that we are making. First, from our observation on the ground, occurrences of sexual exploitation and abuse have decreased. Also, a large number of beneficiaries have been trained through our projects. I am delighted that a total of 375 beneficiaries between 2020 and 2021 have gained vital skills to sustain their lives’.
MONUSCO, in 2020, said it documented 1,053 cases of conflict-related sexual violence in the DRC that affected 675 women, 370 girls, three men and five boys.
Photo source: UN/Sylvain Liechti
