Women and children fleeing deadly violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have reported surviving gruesome sexual attacks and genital mutilation by armed men using tree branches, guns, and knives, Save the Children said. Psychologists working with Save the Children’s local partners in displacement camps in North Kivu have documented mass events of sexual violence against children as young as nine. Save the Children documented more than 800 cases of sexual and gender-based violence across the three conflict-affected provinces Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu. In many conflicts, sexual violence continues to be used as a weapon of war to terrorise women and children. Save the Children calls for an immediate end to the impunity of sexual violence against children by strengthening laws and enforcing them, while holding perpetrators to account.
