The UN reproductive health agency (UNFPA) on Tuesday described women and girls across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as “one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises,” facing widespread insecurity, rising sexual violence, and severely disrupted life-saving services.
Speaking to journalists at the Geneva UN Office after her visits to Kinshasa and Goma, Ms. Shoko Arakaki, UNFPA Director of Humanitarian Affairs, warned that the ongoing fighting, mass displacement, and lawlessness have left women and girls particularly exposed.
There has been a surge in conflict-related sexual violence by a third compared to last year.
She recounted meeting a 14-year old girl who had survived multiple rapes and was recovering from surgery at a UNFPA-supported medical center, still holding on to dream of sitting in the classroom after surgery.
The UN official pressed for the international community and humanitarian partners to urgently scale up protection services, restore reproductive and mental health care, and increase safe humanitarian access to conflict-torn and hard-to-reach areas.
Ms. Arakaki also called for strengthened efforts to hold perpetrators accountable through prosecution.
Humanitarian assistance, essential health, and psychosocial services have been hampered in many affected areas, limiting support for survivors.
Displacement and access barriers have also increased vulnerability across communities, undermining food security, maternal and reproductive health care, and mental health support.
This affects sexual violence victims who face limited options for timely medical treatment, safe shelter, legal action, and counselling.
According to Arakaki, incidents of sexual exploitation, abuse, and coercion are pervasive, especially within overcrowded displacement camps where protection and security remain inadequate.
These humanitarian crises raise compatibility issues with international conventions, which the Democratic Republic of Congo has signed, including the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Specifically, Article 7(1)(g) stipulates that rape, or other forms of sexual violence of comparable gravity, can be classified as crimes against humanity.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is also a signatory to the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.
Articles 11 and 12 recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living, including food to be free from hunger, to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, the treatment of environmental and industrial hygiene, and prevention, treatment, and control of diseases.
(Jurist)
