MSF survey shows continued cycle of violence against displaced women in eastern DR Congo

Since 2022, more than a million people have fled conflict in North Kivu between the Congolese army (FARDC) and the M23 armed group, involving various local and regional armed forces. Two years on, hundreds of thousands of people are still living in extremely precarious conditions near Goma—many in overcrowded displacement camps surrounded by front lines and exposed to high levels of violence.

“Living conditions in displacement camps remain extremely precarious,” said Erica Simons, an epidemiologist at Epicentre. “By fleeing the conflict in North Kivu, hundreds of thousands of displaced people have lost their usual means of subsistence. They no longer have access to the fields they used to cultivate and are dependent on irregular and inadequate food aid, while they continue to suffer daily violence linked to the ongoing conflict.”

In response to people’s needs, MSF teams are present in most of the camps in and around Goma, providing general health care, health promotion, treatment for malnutrition, and care for victims and survivors of sexual violence. Every day, MSF teams witness the acute vulnerability of women, children, and adolescents as the camps are dangerous and the socioeconomic insecurity of displaced people is increasing—forcing them to make decisions that could leave them more vulnerable to attacks.

“Once again this year, victims and survivors of sexual violence report being attacked by men, often armed, in the forests and fields where they have to go to collect firewood or the food they need to feed their families,” said Camille Niel, MSF’s emergency coordinator in Goma. “They also report numerous incidents of violence committed on a daily basis inside the camps. Their precarious situation, and that of their makeshift shelters, make them particularly vulnerable to this type of violence.”

Authorities and aid agencies must guarantee the protection of displaced people and respond adequately to the epidemic of violence. To protect women and children in particular, MSF also calls again on aid agencies to step up food assistance, access to income-generating activities, and safe shelters in the camps, as well as do more to support accommodation and shelter for victims and survivors of sexual violence in serious danger of being attacked again.