Fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is worsening gender-based violence against women

Annie Bunting, York University, Canada and Heather Tasker, Dalhousie University

In early 2025, the March 23 Movement (M23) armed group seized control of Goma and then Bukavu, two major cities in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

M23’s advance and control in the eastern DRC, in defiance of ceasefire agreements, has terrorised communities and led to mass displacement. More than two million people have since been internally displaced in eastern DRC; close to one million people were displaced in 2024 alone.

Civilians are caught in a devastating humanitarian crisis involving sexual and gender-based violence. This kind of violence not only contributes to forced displacement, but displaced women are also more at risk of gender-based violence during times of ongoing fighting.

Furthermore, signs point to gendered violence worsening: in just the last two weeks of February 2025, UNHCR reported 895 reports of humanitarian workers being raped. Previous research has shown that sexual and gender-based violence continues through periods of political transition and worsens when state militaries are weaker than rebel forces.

The risks and drivers of displacement

To understand these risks, in December 2024 researchers with the Congolese organisation Solidarité Féminine Pour La Paix et le Développement Intégral (SOFEPADI) interviewed 89 displaced women and 30 members of civil society organisations working in internally displaced person camps around Goma.

We worked with a team of researchers from SOFEPADI, coordinated by SOFEPADI program officer Martin Baguma and national coordinator Sandrine Lusamba, and with research assistance from Cora Fletcher, a master’s student at Dalhousie University, to put together our recently published report that outlines some of the key findings from the interviews.

The overwhelming majority of respondents had experienced or witnessed sexual and gender-based violence. While interviewers were careful to avoid direct questions so as not to induce trauma, dozens of women nonetheless disclosed personal experiences.

These interviews show just how vulnerable the population is, and how an already dire situation for women and girls has been made exponentially worse over the past six months.

Displaced women were extremely likely to have experienced conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence: 97 per cent of those interviewed were victims of or had witnessed violence during the conflict, with one stating that sexual violence had contributed to their displacement:

“I was living in Kitshanga and then the war started, but I didn’t leave right away. One day I went to the field and I was raped. That’s the day I left Kitshanga and I came here [to the camp].”

Over 70 per cent of interviewees identified M23 as the direct cause of their displacement. A further five per cent indicated that their displacement had been caused by Rwanda’s armed forces, either alone or in conjunction with M23.

One woman from Kitshanga, a town roughly 150 kilometres away from Goma, stated that she had been displaced following “massacres, rapes, and the war…caused by the M23.”

Perpetrators everywhere, protection nowhere

M23 troops were not the only group identified as being responsible for perpetrating sexual and gender-based violence during displacement and in the camps. The crisis has led to widespread gender violence perpetrated by armed groups and forces, including the Congolese military and military-allied militias, civilians and groups of bandits.

The breadth of perpetrators, challenges in identifying perpetrators, and the shifting status of civilians/ militia members all impact opportunities to hold individuals accountable and to meaningfully prevent sexual and gender-based violence through targeted initiatives.

Other Topics To Read

• Regional
• Democratic Republic of Congo
• Goma
• UNHCR
• DRC
• m23
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Bukavu
• Fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is worsening gender-based violence against women
• News

Despite the significant number of international forces operating in eastern DRC, both civil society representatives and displaced women expressed little confidence in these forces’ ability to prevent sexual and gender-based violence.

Goma remains the operational centre of the United Nations MONUSCO peacekeeping mission. Yet, of the 89 displaced women interviewed, only one identified MONUSCO troops as providing security in the areas surrounding the camps. In the eyes of most of the respondents, international forces are simply absent.

Scattered survivors and thwarted justice

Since the M23 takeover, international attention has been drawn to the crisis, and there is renewed focus by the International Criminal Court on combatting impunity and securing accountability for atrocity crimes.

Organizations on the ground, however, remain under-resourced and over-stretched. Access to healthcare (including mental health support), banking, economic support, children’s education, and justice are all severely constrained – a point consistently emphasised by affected women interviewed.

Repeated displacement of vulnerable people, including survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, is likely to further frustrate attempts at holding responsible actors to account, has made it near-impossible to track where women are going, to provide necessary and ongoing support.

With the recent order from M23 for civilians to leave IDP camps, already uprooted women are displaced once again, with little access to humanitarian aid. Civilians have been dispersed, with many unable to return to their villages due to fighting.

Others have returned to find their homes have been burned or looted and there is tension between neighbours over access to land and resources. Human rights defenders are also at grave risk of violence, with mass prison breaks and legal institutions not functioning.

The need for action

The DRC government and M23 have reportedly resumed peace talks to end the fighting. The security situation in eastern DRC is shifting rapidly, and the context that these interviews took place in only three short months ago has changed. The airport in Goma remains closed, thwarting the flow of humanitarian aid. What remains consistent are high levels of forced displacement, sexual and gender-based violence and an internationalized conflict that has worsened women’s security.

With women and girls uniquely and disproportionately impacted, responses to this dire security situation must include and urgent and durable ceasefire and increased humanitarian support.

Annie Bunting, Professor of Law & Society, York University, York Research Chair in International Gender Justice & Peacebuilding, York University, Canada and Heather Tasker, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Dalhousie University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.