2023-05-09 16:08:48
GOMA – In just two weeks, more than 670 victims of sexual violence have been treated by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams in sites for displaced people around Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu. This represents 48 new victims per day. These shocking figures bear witness to the extreme vulnerability and the risk of violence to which displaced people are exposed. Nearly 60% of the victims were assaulted less than 72 hours before reporting to MSF, illustrating the urgency of the situation.
The clashes between the Congolese army, the M23, and the many armed groups established in North Kivu have caused more than a million people to flee their homes since March 2022. Among them, more than 600,000 have found refuge in camps, often overcrowded and unsanitary, on the outskirts of the city of Goma.
From April 17 to 30, 2023, MSF teams treated 674 victims of sexual violence in Bulengo, Lushagala, Kanyaruchinya, Eloime, Munigi and Rusayo, including 360 in the latter site alone, one of the newest and most densely populated camps. located west of Goma. These figures, moreover, are probably underestimated since they only take into account the consultations carried out by MSF teams in the sites for displaced people where the organization is present.
“That’s an average of 48 new victims of sexual violence per day treated by our teams on the sites for displaced people,” says Jason Rizzo, emergency coordinator for MSF in North Kivu. “For months, our teams have been treating a high number of cases but it had never reached the catastrophic scale of recent weeks. Nearly 60% of victims present themselves within 72 hours of their assault; which shows the medical and humanitarian emergency we are facing. »
Almost all of the victims treated by MSF are women and the majority of them mention having been attacked while traveling outside the IDP sites in search of firewood and food. In Rusayo, Bulengo and Kanyaruchinya, more than half of the victims also told MSF teams that they had been attacked by armed men.
“After we arrived here, one of my children started showing signs of malnutrition. I couldn’t just sit around and do nothing. I decided to go to the forest to collect wood to sell in order to earn something and buy food. That’s where I came across bandits who attacked me,” said a displaced woman living in Rusayo camp.
Despite the increased mobilization of humanitarian organizations in recent weeks, living conditions in the sites for displaced people around Goma continue to be disastrous and the people who live there lack everything: food, latrines, water, shelter. However, the critical inadequacy of humanitarian assistance increases the vulnerability of displaced persons and exacerbates the risk of violence to which they are confronted.
“There is an urgent need to improve the living conditions of people in IDP sites. Basic needs, such as access to food, water and sanitation, must be guaranteed. We must also ensure protective measures to protect women, in particular, from danger”, underlines Jason Rizzo.
MSF provides free and confidential medical and psychological care to all victims of sexual violence in the main IDP sites around Goma. In order to avoid medical complications related to sexual assault, it is essential that victims present themselves to a health facility within 72 hours of the incident to receive appropriate medical care.
Source: MSF press release, 09.05.23
About our emergency response
Since May 2022, MSF teams have been working in IDP sites around Goma, providing free medical care, providing drinking water and building latrines and showers according to the most urgent needs. MSF also responded to the cholera and measles epidemics which affected certain camps, through case management and the organization of vaccination campaigns. In addition, MSF teams are also working in Sake and Kayna, in the province of North Kivu, as well as in Minova, in South Kivu, to improve access to care in these areas when tens of thousands displaced people have also found refuge there. In North Kivu, MSF also continues to provide free essential medical care in Rutshuru, Kibirizi, Bambo, Binza, Mweso, Masisi and Walikale.
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