Minembwe Capital News DRcongo watch reports over the anticipated Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announcement that in the next two weeks, they will provide care for more than 670 victims of sexual assault at facilities for displaced persons in North Kivu.
These victims are listed in the displaced person sites at Bulengo, Lushagala, Kanyaruchinya, Eloime, Munigi, and Rusayo, all of which are close to Goma, according to this international organisation.
MSF discusses the startling statistics that demonstrate the tremendous vulnerability and violent risk that these displaced people face.
According to MSF, “nearly 60% of the victims were attacked less than 72 hours before reporting to MSF, illustrating the urgency of the situation,” in a news release distributed to Radio Okapi that Tuesday.
Out of the 674 patients treated by MSF, 360 victims of sexual abuse were found in the Rusayo location, the most populous of all the displaced person camps west of Goma.
The bulk of the victims, who are almost all female, said that they were assaulted while moving around in search of food and firewood.
The MSF workers were informed by half of the victims that they had been attacked by armed individuals.
MSF claims that the severe lack of humanitarian aid makes displaced persons more vulnerable and increases their likelihood of experiencing violence.
The Goma area’s camps for the internally displaced must immediately improve their living circumstances, according to this humanitarian organisation.
It is necessary to assure access to necessities like food, water, and sanitary facilities.
MSF continues, “We must also ensure that safety precautions are taken to protect people, especially women, from harm.”
This structure laments that, despite a recent rise in the number of humanitarian organisations mobilising, the living circumstances for displaced persons continue to be appalling and those who live there are in dire conditions.