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00:00First, health care workers doing what they can for victims of sexual violence in eastern DR Congo
00:07say that they've seen a distressing increase in cases. Those treating those targeted by
00:14sexual abuse say that since 2021, survivors, both children and adults, have increasingly been
00:21presenting with serious physical damage and psychological trauma after ordeals that local
00:26medics say are carried out by multiple armed groups operating in the region, some of whom
00:31are supported by neighbouring Rwanda or even the Congolese military itself. Emmett Livingston
00:37brings us more from Kinshasa. Women and girls are increasingly being deliberately targeted
00:43by combatants on all sides in the conflict in eastern Congo, according to a report released
00:48on Tuesday by the NGO Physicians for Human Rights. Cases of sexual violence are soaring.
00:53The UN documented 113,000 instances of rape or sexual assault in 2023 and figures from the first
01:00half of 2024 are double what they were this time last year. Conflict is driving the huge rise in
01:05sexual assault and particularly the M23 conflict which erupted three years ago and has displaced
01:10over a million people. Women and girls who constitute the majority of survivors are
01:15particularly vulnerable. The report, which is based on interviews with local health workers,
01:20also found that survivors often only seek medical care after brutally violent encounters such as
01:25gang rape. According to Physicians for Human Rights, there's a need to document the abuses
01:30in order to pave the way for justice. What we know is that while many survivors do not want
01:34to go to court for justice, for survivors who do these cases often fail due to lack of proper
01:40evidence and this is a critical moment to be trying to collect that medical legal evidence
01:45in particular for survivors and to ensure that when they go to a health facility they are not
01:50re-traumatized when they are seeking to have their cases documented and reported. So there is an urgent
01:55need right now to support the health sector to be able to receive survivors of sexual violence
02:01and to be able to ensure that the forensic evidence of the violations that they've occurred
02:05is properly captured. The call for justice comes after this month the International Criminal Court
02:11announced it was renewing its investigations into crimes committed in DR Congo from 2022.
02:17According to Physicians for Human Rights, the perpetrators of sexual violence in the region
02:21range from militia fighters to Congolese soldiers and even UN peacekeepers. Many survivors often
02:27suffer complex medical needs but the conflict has also severely degraded Congo's health system.