TW: This article contains descriptions of rape and reference to suicide. All stories have been shared with informed consent from survivors. Identifying details have been omitted.
By Emmanuel Mlondani, Association of Women for the Promotion and Endogenous Development Historical (AFPDE)
The situation in eastern DRC remains terrifyingly unstable. I live and work in these communities, and every day I see how conflict is tearing them apart - especially for women and girls.
We are seeing an exponential increase in cases of rape and sexual assault, especially in North and South Kivu. The number of survivors who reach out for support continues to rise. And yet, many more go unheard, unseen - either because the roads are too dangerous, the fear too great, or the stigma too heavy. These persistent acts of violence have driven many people into despair and forced displacement.
Our response systems are stretched beyond breaking point.
Testimonies and documented cases reveal the extreme brutality inflicted on women and girls, including fatal injuries resulting from severe genital trauma while victims were forcibly restrained and unable to defend themselves. Killings continue to occur alongside widespread sexual violence, with some survivors losing their lives after being assaulted. These accounts highlight the profound suffering endured by women and girls and underscore the urgent need for stronger protection, justice, and humanitarian response.
Let me tell you what this looks like.
A few weeks ago, a woman collapsed into tears at our counselling centre. She had just received her HIV test result. It was positive. She had been raped by more than four armed men. But the attack happened more than 72 hours earlier, and she hadn’t been able to reach us in time for post-exposure prophylaxis.
This is not an isolated story. It is happening again and again.
Sexual violence as a weapon of war
Girls and women continue to be targeted to satisfy the sexual demands of armed men, many of whom exploit the prevailing climate of impunity—where weapons dictate authority—to rape at will. In several areas of North and South Kivu provinces, rape is deliberately used as a weapon of war.
Despite the fact that one girl took her own life after being raped three times, neither the perpetrators nor their leaders have shown any concern or accountability for these atrocities.
We received a woman who had been raped in her own home, right in front of her husband. Her husband tried to intervene. The attackers shot him dead. They also shot and killed their seven-year-old child. They looted the house. And they left her there, violated and alone, surrounded by the bodies of her loved ones.
Another 15-year-old girl had already been raped twice. Then one day, while walking home, another group of men seized her and raped her again. After the third time, she could not take any more. She swallowed poison and died by suicide.
Another survivor, a widow, told us how six armed men entered her house one evening and threatened to rape her in front of her children. To protect her children from witnessing the assault, she asked for permission to go to the latrine behind the house. The men followed her and they held her down, two on her arms, two on her legs, while another raped her. He also cut her genitals with a knife.
Men and adolescent boys are also not spared; they too are victims of conflict-related sexual violence. In some cases, men have had their testicles punctured in violent attacks. Others are extorted.
I am sharing these testimonies because they are real. They are not rare. They are not isolated. They are happening every single day in the eastern region affected by this conflict.
Survivors and their families tell me that the absence of justice contributes to this climate of impunity, where those attempting to intervene are often threatened or even killed. Many communities have stopped believing that justice is even possible.
What we’re doing to help
The Association des Femmes pour la Promotion et le Développement Endogène (AFPDE) is a local, women-led NGO. We run five community listening centres and one at our organisational headquarters.
We distribute dignity kits to adolescent girls and women, and provide free medical care, psychosocial support, and voluntary counselling and HIV testing to survivors. We are trying to expand this to more centres, but we are held back by funding.
We are strengthening our ability to respond through support from IPPF and the Government of Australia. This includes training 144 health workers across six health zones on the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP), which is a set of lifesaving sexual and reproductive health services for use in emergencies. The training also covers Psychological First Aid, and the LIVES approach for supporting survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.
We supply 33 health facilities across seven health zones with the medicines they need to treat SGBV survivors, including post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to prevent HIV where possible. But local suppliers are running low, and our next batch of kits is still in transit from Germany. Every delay puts more lives at risk.
Powered by young people
We work with youth volunteers, known as Community Relays (RECO). These young people are trained to spread community awareness and refer survivors to care.
These volunteers play a crucial role at the community level. They are the eyes and ears, and serve as early warning focal points, helping to identify risks and facilitate timely response.
Why local leadership matters
AFPDE has the distinct advantage of being a local NGO deeply rooted in the communities it serves. We are part of the community. We live here. We rely on local staff from populations directly affected by armed conflict, enabling strong community trust and access.
This unique positioning allows AFPDE to provide continuous, survivor-centered services for individuals affected by sexual violence - services that many international organizations are unable to sustain in the conflict-affected areas of North and South Kivu. But we can. And we do.
Recently, AFPDE was able to provide PEP kits to health facilities in areas that are otherwise difficult for other international humanitarian actors to reach due to the conflict.
The world must not look away
The crisis in the DRC has largely been overlooked, despite decades of serious crimes committed under the watch of the international community, often without a response proportionate to the severity of these violations. This ongoing cycle of sexual violence, particularly against women and girls in certain areas, has far-reaching consequences, including the birth of children conceived through rape who often face neglect.
The data we have paints a grim picture: among survivors, rates of HIV and other infections are high. This is not just a protection crisis - it is a public health emergency.
In the meantime, support from other humanitarian actors is urgently needed, as the number of sexual violence cases continues to rise at alarming levels.
Although progress remains slow, studies and field reports offer a measure of hope that this long-standing ordeal will one day come to an end, and that Congolese women and girls will be able to regain their dignity will grow up free from fear.
Until then, we cannot be silent.
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