percentage os raped women in armed conflict

Statistics show that armed combatants are by far the most common attackers of the victims of sexual violence that do get registered in the eastern provinces of the DRC (Bartels et al. Therefore, the UN reports state that the available figures ‘only represent the tip of the iceberg’ (OHCHR, 2010). For the tens of thousands rape victims that seek help, there are many more that remain unregistered because of the inability for victims to reach health centres, shame, fear for repercussions and fear for being stigmatized by the victim’s own community (OHCHR, 2010 Kippenberg et al. Official statistics for recent years are scarce, but for 2018, the UN reported 1049 documented cases of conflict-related sexual violence in the DRC, 308 of which attributed to government forces and the remainder to armed groups (UNSG 2019).

But this is also ‘thought to be a significantly low estimate’ (Kelly et al. UN agencies estimate that 200,000 women have become the victims of sexual violence perpetrated by armed groups in the eastern DRC since 1998 (Baaz and Stern 2013 UN News 2013). A 2010 United Nations study has emphasized the ‘recurrent, widespread and systematic nature of this phenomenon’ (United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2010).

This is the continuous, large-scale and systematic use of sexual violence on the local population by virtually all armed groups, both government and non-government, that have been fighting in the region (UNSG 2014 Kippenberg et al. One puzzling but central aspect of the violence perpetrated on the local civil population has received special attention by the media, scholars and the international community. With the violence being concentrated in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu, armed groups have not only fought each other but defenceless civilians have been targeted directly on a large scale as well. For more than two decades, war has continued to ravage the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Percentage os raped women in armed conflict