U.N. RIGHTS CHIEF SAYS CONFLICT IN DRC AIDS SEXUAL VIOLENCE-Burundi troops lend support to Congo in South Kivu
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said today that the escalation of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo may increase the risk of conflict-related sexual violence.
The spokesperson for the U.N. rights chief, Jeremy Laurence told a news briefing in Geneva that his office has received a report of 52 women who were victims of sexual violence perpetrated by the Congolese troops in South Kivu and 165 women who were also victims of sexual violence during a prison break in Goma according to the DRC government.
The Rwandan-backed insurgents M23 rebels’ seizure of Goma this week and ongoing offensive southwards are the biggest escalation since 2012 of a decades-old conflict the U.N. says risks spiraling into another major regional war.
Troops from neighbouring Burundi, which has had hostile relations with Rwanda, support Congolese troops in South Kivu – meaning the risk of a wider conflict would increase. Burundi’s military declined to comment on the situation in Congo.
Rwanda says it is defending itself, accusing Congo’s military of joining forces with ethnic Hutu-led militias bent on slaughtering Tutsis in Congo and threatening Rwanda, where Hutus targeted Tutsis in a 1994 genocide and some later fled to Congo. Congo, who denies this, accuses Rwanda of using M23, which it describes as a “terrorist proxy of Rwanda,” to pillage valuable minerals from Congolese territory.
