Conflict-displaced women facing growing risk of sexual violence in eastern DRC

More than 100 armed groups operate in eastern DRC amid conflict tracing back to the 1990s and intensified since 2012 fighting involving M23. This report focuses on a different threat: civilians who exploit displaced women seeking domestic work, as in the case of a young woman raped while doing laundry for a household that offered her 5,000 Congolese francs.

Women at the Don Bosco displaced persons camp describe searching daily for work in town and facing abuse they feel unable to report because they still need income to feed their families. Congolese law under Article 170 of the Penal Code punishes rape with five to twenty years, and civil society groups and psychologists are promoting income-generating activities and psychosocial support as ways to reduce vulnerability and rebuild survivors' independence.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.