Friday 26 July 2024
Kinshasa, DR Congo

UN experts warned on Thursday of an “alarming increase in human trafficking for sexual exploitation” in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo due to conflict and population displacement.
In a press release, the independent experts, mandated by the United Nations Human Rights Council, also expressed their “concern at the closure” of the UN Mission in the DRC (Monusco).
Monusco has just left the province of South Kivu, and its withdrawal from North Kivu and Ituri, the last two provinces where it still operates, is scheduled for an unspecified date.
The experts say they are “alarmed by reports of widespread human trafficking, particularly for the purposes of sexual slavery and exploitation, and an increase in child and forced marriages”.
These facts are observed, they say, “due to the conflict and population displacements in the east” of the DRC.
For the past 30 years, this region has been plagued by the violence of numerous armed groups, many of them inherited from the conflicts of 1990-2000.
The crisis has worsened over the last two and a half years in North Kivu, where the territorial advance of a Rwandan-backed rebellion (the M23) has led to the displacement of thousands of people.

The experts claim to have learned of “at least 531 victims of sexual violence” linked to the conflicts from August 2023 to June 2024 in North Kivu, but also South Kivu, Ituri, Tanganyika and Maniema.
“The allegations reported to us describe displaced women and girls abducted” for the purposes of sexual violence, exploitation or slavery, ‘while in search of food or firewood, or participating in agricultural activities’, the experts state.
“Reports of the involvement of security and defense forces (…) are very worrying”, they add.
“We fear that with the withdrawal of Monusco, key elements of the early warning systems for human rights violations will no longer be operational”, they write.
After 25 years of presence, the withdrawal of Monusco has been called for by the Congolese authorities, who consider it ineffective in the fight against armed groups.
The DRC, whose population is estimated at around 100 million, has some 7 million displaced persons, including 2.8 million in North Kivu, according to the UN.

Humaniterre with AFP