Gender-Based Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Former Secretary of State John Kerry speaking out against gender-based violence at a USAID-funded clinic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (2014)

Credit: U.S. Department of State / Wikimedia Commons

Introduction

Pramila Patten, the United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, spoke at a Harvard University lecture in 2024 stating, “We meet at a time when conflict-related sexual violence is again in our daily headlines, and its recurrence with each new wave of warfare continues to shock the collective conscience of humanity.” Major humanitarian crises in Gaza, Sudan, and the DRC are reaching catastrophic consequences due to the conflicts within those regions. Specifically, these conflicts create devastating effects for women. 

Gender-based violence (GBV) cases include sexual, physical, mental, and economic harm inflicted in public or in private, and can take forms such as intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and child marriage. This oppression of women in war is a critical portrayal of the true horror and extent of violence. GBV cases can be seen in early 2025, where fighting between Congolese security forces and militant groups led by M23 escalated rapidly, as M23 recaptured Goma, the largest city in the North Kivu province, located in the Eastern DRC on the Rwandan border. The women and children in the Democratic Republic of Congo are victims of internal displacement and ongoing violence created by conflict, suffering through severe GBV that must be addressed. 

Historical Context

The DRC is the largest country in Sub-Saharan Africa, holding natural resources such as cobalt and copper, hydroelectric potential, and significant arable land. Yet, an estimated 73.5% of Congolese people lived on less than $2.15 a day in 2024. War and government instability has contributed to the lack of economic productivity in a land of valuable resources, as the Congolese are internally displaced and facing major dangers. 

The current political discourse can be traced back to the Rwandan genocide. In April 1994, in over 100 days, members of the majority Hutu ethnic group in Rwanda killed an estimated 800,000 minority Tutsis, moderate Hutus, and members of a third ethnic group, the Twa. Nearly 2 million Hutu refugees crossed the Congolese border, mostly settling in refugee camps in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces of Zaire (modern day DRC). The First Congo War (1996-1997) and the Second Congo War (1998-2003) were complex events, in which Uganda, Rwanda, and Angola invaded the DRC to fight Hutu fighters from Rwanda. In May 1997, its name was changed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Rebel groups surged in power during the Second Congo War. One such group emerged in the early 2000s, called the March 23 Movement (M23), made up primarily of ethnic Tutsis. The name stems from the March 23 Agreement of 2009, when the DRC government signed a ceasefire treaty with the Tutsi-majority National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), one of the numerous groups of fighters active since the Second Congo War. However, in April 2012, CNDP soldiers revolted due to poor treatment in the army, and claimed to fight for Tutsis’ rights in the DRC, capturing Goma that same year. M23 operates in the DRC, receiving general military supplies from the Rwandan Defense Forces and violating international law by targeting women and children in armed conflict. M23 has exacerbated the diplomatic relations between the DRC, Rwanda, and other neighboring countries, with innocent civilians as the true victims. The UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) supported the Congolese army in its fight against M23, leading the group to call off its initial campaign in 2013. Now, M23 has recaptured Goma, posing an imminent danger to women and children in that region, as seen through various GBV cases.

Sexual Violence 

The World Health Organization defines sexual violence as any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, or other act directed against a person’s sexuality using coercion.  Spokesperson of UNICEF reported that children make up between 35 to 45 percent of the nearly 10,000 cases of rape and sexual violence reported in January and February of 2025 alone. Consequences of sexual violence include mental and neurological disorders and communicable diseases. The trauma from such a crisis is irreversible, and establishes a notion, in which men can exploit the vulnerability of children during times of conflict in order to send a political message that has nothing to do with children. 

In 2023, the camps around the city of Goma hosted around 600,000 internally displaced people (IDP), hundreds were women subjected to sexual violence, including rape and forced prostitution, while searching for food, firewood and other essentials. M23’s current control of Goma in 2025, displaced people either returned to their home villages or fled to the city, where they have faced dire conditions and have had limited or no humanitarian aid. Regardless, government instability and lack of rule of law have created an environment where women and children can only rely on themselves against sexual violence and the obstacles of everyday living. M23 also campaigns to recruit young boys in the DRC to join their cause. This complex power dynamic reflects the DRC and neighboring countries' failure to mitigate the crisis. The intention to attack civilians will influence newer generations to perpetrate danger, which in turn causes a vicious cycle of systemic violence that must be stopped. 

Survival Sex

Another GBV case in the DRC is young girls resorting to survival sex. One scholarly article defines survival sex as “sex being exchanged for aid or assistance which is already owed to the local population.” However, survival sex also defines how a vulnerable population, such as young girls, will meet this exchange for immediate resources. Hundreds already living in displacement camps in and around Goma before the M23 invasion faced dire conditions without access to adequate shelter, food, sanitation, and healthcare. With no active economy, constant threat, and unstable supply of food and other resources, children have nowhere else to go for protection. At the beginning of 2023, a mapping conducted identified 145 brothels, at least half of which are in IDP sites, with many employing children. Survival sex exemplifies the dire situation in the DRC, as children are forced to have their bodies exploited in order to survive. 

Child Marriage

Child marriage is also prevalent in GBV cases in the Congo, an institution that is caused by a lack of access to opportunity and drives further inaccessibility to opportunity. In a 2024 report, 37 percent of girls in the DRC are forcibly married before the age of 18. Child marriage forces young girls and boys to mature at a young age, and for young women, child marriage can expose them to damaging power dynamics in a patriarchal system. Child marriage is a key driver of adolescent pregnancy, which can lead to major health risks and increase the risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections. The international norm, as propelled by international organizations, condemns child marriage; however, the unsteady violence and displacement in the DRC create a circumstance with extremely limited options. In order to reduce GBV cases such as child marriage, the conflict in the DRC must end. 

Additionally, women do not have access to reproductive and sexual healthcare facilities. The DRC suffered 159 documented attacks against healthcare facilities in 2022, and healthcare facilities ceased operations for up to 4 weeks following an attack. Cases of rape can affect women to have increase risk of pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases. Armed groups such as M23 are significantly depleting the lives of women by inflicting violence and destroying facilities that women must use for their health. Currently, hospitals in Goma are overwhelmed and lack adequate facilities to treat patients. Men can exploit women in violent ways for their bodies, and will let them suffer with the mental and health consequences in a frame of war to promote their message against the government. 

The Future  

Before M23’s escalation of Goma, the DRC was making progress in strengthening the livelihood of its citizens. MONUSCO concluded its operations in South Kivu in April, completing the transfer of responsibilities to the government by the end of June 2024, but the organization continues to support the DRC government against attacks. 

While UNHCR is promoting its role to protect refugees, children, and women vulnerable in the region, Western states need to play their role in this conflict. While U.S. companies once owned vast cobalt mines in the Congo, now Chinese companies control the majority of foreign-owned cobalt, uranium, and copper mines in the DRC. China has involved itself in the conflict by supporting the Congolese government by providing Chinese drones and weaponry. Despite these efforts, China may have a vision to take advantage of the Congo’s resources as well. Human lives are not expendable. The cost of life at the expense of ongoing conflict has almost created a desensitized norm in news media, in which non-Western countries continue to suffer catastrophic crises at the cost of Western pursuit of resources. 

The DRC government should be able to accumulate its own GDP and strengthen its quality of life for people without having military interference from M23 or Rwanda. The original intent of M23 to preserve the rights of the Tutsis is gone, with the world understanding its actions from the violence inflicted on innocent civilians. The DRC's President Félix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame have called for an "immediate ceasefire" after having direct talks in Qatar in March 2025, but the situation continues to unfold. At the end of this conflict, the ones who lost the most are the women and children who had no true voice. Gender-based violence cases in the DRC exacerbate the grim tone of a brutal conflict in the international system.