Senior UN officials warn that the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) decades-long human rights crisis is on a downward spiral as armed clashes, attacks on schools and hospitals, sexual violence and other forms of abuse escalate. Opening a discussion at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, UN rights chief Volker Türk urged the international community to pay more attention to the plight of Congolese civilians.
“The human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues to spiral before our eyes. A volatile mix of escalating violence, regional and international interests, exploitative businesses, and weak rule of law. At the expense of a people already devastated by decades of conflict,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Tuesday.
“This situation deserves the immediate attention of the international community – so the guns can be silenced and the space for peace can emerge,” Türk added.
He said the number of victims of human rights violations was growing, with armed groups fighting in the eastern provinces responsible for most of these abuses, including "deadly attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals".
According to the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), between June 2023 and May 2024, 85 percent of violations and abuses committed in the country occurred in conflict-affected provinces in the east. Armed groups were allegedly responsible for 61 percent of these.
Türk said sexual violence was spreading despite efforts to prevent and investigate cases.
"The armed groups take people prisoners, subject women and girls to sexual slavery. Many of them have been killed after being raped. These cases, of course, have not all been reported. This is atrocious," he said.
"Human rights violations committed by the defense and security forces during their military operations against armed groups, also remain of concern," he said noting that hate speech and other incitement to discrimination and violence "are fueling the conflict and increasing political tensions across the country."
Türk appealed to countries of influence to use their power to ensure the fighting stops, stating that "any role played by Rwanda in supporting the M23 in North Kivu, and by any other country supporting armed groups active in the DRC, must end."
Neighboring Rwanda supports the M23 armed group and has reinforced its support for the M23 in 2024. According to UN experts, thousands of Rwandan troops are on Congolese soil
Responding to Türk's comments, DRC Minister of Human Rights Chantal Shambu Mwavita said her government had made great progress in protecting human rights, in spite of challenges posed by the war in the east.
Alluding to Rwanda, she pointed her finger at so-called "negative forces" supporting the armed groups from the outside. She "called on the international community to condemn these actions strongly and to impose targeted sanctions on Rwanda for its destabilizing role."
Mwavita said the war in the eastern provinces was closely linked to the seizure and illegal exploitation of her country's natural resources by Rwanda and other countries. She also demanded the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Rwandan troops from DRC territory.
The eastern DRC provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri have been wracked by violence for decades as non-state armed groups (NSAGs) fight for control of the region's rich natural resources. Since the beginning of 2024, more than 2.4 million people have been forced to flee violence perpetrated by a wide range of these armed groups.
Many of those forced to flee have been displaced multiple times. Humanitarian needs are acute, with protection, food, shelter and sanitation of the highest priority. 2.8 million people are currently displaced in North Kivu province alone.
Today, the DRC has one of the largest numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world, with more than 7.3 million people scattered throughout the country, most of them - 6.4 million - in the eastern provinces. More than 1.1 million refugees have sought safety in neighboring countries.
In particular, fighting between the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) and the Mouvement du 23 mars (M23) has forced millions of people to flee their homes. The M23 is the most prominent of more than 130 armed groups reportedly active in the strategic and resource-rich region, which has been at the center of several conflicts since the 1990s.
Rwanda has repeatedly denied supporting the M23 rebels, with Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe renewing that denial on Saturday. The minister, who was attending a two-day "Francophonie" summit in Paris, accused his Congolese counterpart of refusing to sign an "agreed deal" to resolve the M23 rebel conflict in the DRC.
On Tuesday, Rwanda's Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, James Ngango, also expressed concern about the escalation of abuses and human rights violations in eastern DRC, "particularly sexual violation and violation against children in the region affected by armed conflict and inter community conflicts," he said.
He said Rwanda remained committed to dialogue and the regional peace processes. "No military solution can address the root causes of the conflict in eastern DRC," he said.
Whether the DRC's demand for the withdrawal of Rwandan troops will be met is unclear, as is when the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) will withdraw from the country as requested by the government of Felix Tshisekedi.
Bintou Keita, the Secretary-General's Special Representative in the DRC and head of MONUSCO, said little about the potential consequences for the stability of the DRC once UN peacekeepers leave the country.
However, she painted a worrying picture of human rights in the DRC due to "the deteriorating security situation" in the eastern provinces from attacks on civilians, "causing loss of human lives and mass displacements of peoples towards Kinshasa and Kisangani."
"The M23, in the quest for territorial gains, extended its hold on territories towards Lubero Kanyabayonga, which was captured in late June after intense fighting. Hospitals and IDP sites were deliberately targeted by M23. Several civilians fled their homes, further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis," she said.
She affirmed that MONUSCO "will continue to provide its support to the DRC … in strict conformity with the UN human rights due diligence policy, including support for the establishment of the human rights compliance framework."
"The return of peace to the DRC will come about through pooled military and non-military efforts to find lasting solutions, both national and regional," Keita added.
Meanwhile, in New York, the security situation in eastern DRC was also on the agenda of the UN Security Council on Tuesday. The top UN official for the Great Lakes Region said the security situation in the DRC remains alarming, with the M23 rebel group and other armed groups intensifying the conflict and worsening the humanitarian situation.
Huang Xia, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region, expressed concern that the M23 group continues to spread terror and now controls more land than it did in 2012.
Attacks on civilians by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), another armed group, in Ituri and North Kivu provinces also had devastating consequences, including massive new displacements, making the DRC the world's country with the second largest number of IDPs after Sudan.
Renewed diplomatic and humanitarian efforts were needed in response to this “sad record which should speak to all of us”, he said. Despite this bleak picture, recent peace talks as part of the Luanda process were encouraging, and the July 30 ceasefire reached under the auspices of Angola had been largely respected.
Several fragile ceasefires have been in place. An initial two-week humanitarian ceasefire was announced on July 5, but was not fully respected. The most recent ceasefire between the governments of the DRC and Rwanda has been in effect in the east since August 4. The open-ended ceasefire in the eastern region of the country was announced by Angola on July 30.
“The path to a final agreement is long and strewn with pitfalls”, Xia said, commending regional groups for their efforts and urging the Security Council to ensure that the ceasefire holds.
Conflict in the DRC has come at a high cost. According to the United Nations, the country is facing a dual humanitarian crisis - an internal displacement crisis and a food crisis. While more than 7.3 million people are currently internally displaced, more than 23 million are suffering from acute hunger.
Nearly a quarter of the DRC's population continues to face crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity, making it one of the largest food crises in the world. Nearly 4.5 million children under the age of five are acutely malnourished, with approximately 1.4 million children suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM).
According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), between 14 and 15 million people across the DRC are likely to require food assistance between October and December this year, mainly due to the combined effects of worsening conflict, seasonal flooding and economic instability.
The DRC also faces other challenges, including a surge in cases and deaths from Mpox. The central African country is the epicenter of the epidemic, with 90 percent of all cases in Africa. Mpox cases are occurring in all provinces of the DRC, with multiple clade 2 outbreaks occurring simultaneously in endemic and non-endemic provinces.
Cross-border transmission from the war-torn eastern provinces of North and South Kivu into neighboring countries is accelerating, particularly into Burundi, but also into Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya.
The protracted humanitarian crisis in the DRC has been largely neglected by donors, the international media, and political leaders. Additional resources are urgently needed to address the humanitarian needs in the country. In its 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP), the United Nations appealed for US$2.6 billion, but only 45 percent of this amount has been received to date.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.
Further information
Full text: High Commissioner Türk on the Democratic Republic of Congo: “Make the space for peace”, statement, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 57th session of the UN Human Rights Council, delivered on October 8, 2024
https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2024/10/high-commissioner-turk-democratic-republic-congo-make-space-peace