Women and Girls’ Bodies Become a Frontline in the DRC’s Mineral War

In mid-February, Nsimire Nsiko was working in the fields of her family’s farm in Katana, on the shores of Lake Kivu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), when three Congolese soldiers walked past her and asked her to help them carry their belongings. 

“I explained that I was alone on the farm and could not leave,” said the 23-year-old, whose name has been changed to protect her identity. “They threatened to shoot and kill me if I did not comply, so I had no choice but to carry their luggage — one on my back and the other on my head.”

They walked for a long time and arrived in the bush, where the soldiers commanded they would sleep for the night. “While I was sleeping, one of them approached me and started raping me. Then a second one came and did the same, followed by a third one who also raped me. I asked them why they did that to me, and in response, they began to slap and beat me.”

A War atop Mineral Wealth

Lake Kivu is one of the African Great Lakes — a 55-mile stretch of water surrounded by verdant hills, situated on the border with Rwanda. It is also at the heart of a decades-long conflict that intensified in January after the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group seized the two largest cities in the east — Goma and Bukavu, which sit at opposite ends of the lake. In response, the Congolese army began collaborating with a coalition of local militia called Wazalendo, or “patriots” in Kiswahili, to fight against the M23 rebels.

The DRC is one of the world’s most resource-rich countries, sitting atop an abundance of minerals  used in many technology products — yet little of the wealth remains with the Congolese people. Foreign countries and armed rebel groups vie for control of the land’s resources, while committing war crimes against civilians. 

Near the frontlines, sexual violence is rampant, and women bear the brunt of it. Senior United Nations officials have warned that all parties involved in the conflict systematically use sexual violence as a tactic of war against civilians.

After raping Nsiko, the Congolese soldiers stole her money. “I was so hurt,” she said. She couldn’t report the crimes to the police, as she was fleeing from the M23 group after its militants took control of the area, and she couldn’t go to the hospital to get medication or see a psychologist because “the gunfire was too intense.”

“Since the ordeal, I have been feeling unwell. It feels as if I have an unknown illness. I also have rashes all over my body, and I am in pain,” she said. 

“Wherever they are, they don't seem to be safe anywhere.”

The two sides agreed to a ceasefire in late April, but recurrent clashes continue in some areas, with sexual violence still happening at an alarming rate. Between January and April 2025, Médecins Sans Frontières teams treated nearly 7,400 victims of sexual violence in facilities in and around the city of Goma.

For two weeks in February, there were a staggering 895 rape cases reported to humanitarian actors, according to Patrick Eba, deputy director of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ Division of International Protection. That equals an average of more than 60 rapes a day.

Marcelline Budza, the founder of Rebuild Women’s Hope, a women’s coffee cooperative on Idjwi Island in Lake Kivu, said that the current situation is so bad that many women carry condoms when they go out so that “when they are caught by a man who will be raping them, they have to start negotiating with them so that he uses a condom,” in order to protect themselves against pregnancy and disease. “We should not have to live with this fear and in these conditions,” she said.  

Budza founded Rebuild Women’s Hope in 2013 to empower women living in rural communities, and she was in Bukavu in March at the cooperative’s office when M23 rebels invaded. The rebels stole a full container worth of coffee and attacked their factory, killing one of the guards and raping the women. “I myself was persecuted by rebels. During two weeks, I wasn't able to sleep in my own house. I had to stay over at friends’ houses, and then in order to stay alive, I was forced to leave the country.” 

In 2010, the DRC was dubbed the “rape capital of the world” by Margot Wallström, the first UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict. Experts say the situation appears to be worsening, with conflict known to exacerbate gender-based violence against women and girls, with those displaced from their homes particularly vulnerable. Over four million Congolese people are estimated to be internally displaced within the eastern provinces of South Kivu, North Kivu, and Ituri.

A woman sits in Bulengo displacement camp, located near Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo. As of June 2025, five million people reportedly in displacement camps in eastern DRC, per the United Nations. WFP/Michael Castofas

This past December, Heather Tasker, assistant professor of political science at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, conducted research with Annie Bunting, professor of law and society at York University in Toronto, Canada, and the Congolese organization Solidarité Féminine Pour La Paix et le Développement Intégral , interviewing displaced women in camps around Goma. They found “very high rates of sexual and gender-based violence,” not just by combatants, but also “civilians, bandits, and intimate partners.” 

Tasker said local militia members in the Wazalendo have a disturbing record of being accused of sexual and gender-based violence. They noted that the “breadth of perpetrators, challenges in identifying perpetrators, and the shifting status of civilians and militia members all impact opportunities to hold individuals accountable.”

François Calas, head of Médecins Sans Frontières’ program in North Kivu, said the group assists a lot of  women who have been abused in or near the homes of host families or community centers that promise them shelter. “Very often, they are coerced into sexual acts in exchange for accommodation. Wherever they are, they don't seem to be safe anywhere,”

Médecins Sans Frontières was assisting one survivor, Nasha, whose name was changed to protect her identity, as she lived in a shelter in the courtyard of a local school after she was displaced. One night, armed men came into her home at about 10:30 p.m., she said. "Some men were killed and some women, including me, were raped. Three men wanted to rape me in front of my husband and eight children. My husband resisted…they killed him."

Due to the proliferation of weapons, many of the reported assaults that Médecins Sans Frontières receives happen under the threat of weapons by civilians and members of the military. But there is also a culture of impunity that makes accountability very difficult. A woman’s “vulnerability is elevated” when she is displaced, said Natàlia Torrent, head of mission for Médecins Sans Frontières in the DRC. A culture of sexual violence is “permitted with a weapon and permitted without a weapon.”

Dwindling global aid

Women for Women International, a nonprofit that  works with women in post-conflict zones around the world, had to pause their programmes in eastern DRC when fighting escalated earlier this year. Their headquarters are in Bukavu, so “gathering women together would have actually put them at high risk,” said Vianney Dong, the group’s  country director in the DRC. 

Now, Women for Women International officials are working with survivors of sexual violence, like Nsimire to give them psychosocial support, but they face funding challenges. The dismantling of USAID earlier this year led Women for Women International to  prematurely end a program helping survivors. Meanwhile, another organization, Solidarité Féminine Pour La Paix et le Développement Intégral, has had to  cut two programs that offered psychosocial support, because of budget reductions. Tasker said these cuts have hit the DRC hard, and she predicted new cuts to the United Nations Population Fund, which provides women emergency contraceptives and other sexual and reproductive health support.

Access to medical treatment is becoming increasingly difficult, experts said. Médecins Sans Frontières said several health facilities in the provinces of North and South Kivu have run out of medicine and kits to treat survivors of sexual violence. The organization is calling on all parties in the conflict to improve civilian safety, and it’s urging the international community to prioritize survivor care for survivors, despite the current funding cuts.

Survivors also face stigma, a major obstacle that makes it difficult for them to speak about their experiences. “It requires a lot of trust when you are reporting [sexual violence], and a lot of confidentiality,” said Dong. She stresses to the women the importance of overcoming stigma,  especially so they can get the medical help they need. Beyond that, she said Women for Women International  focuses on shifting the women’s mindset from “victim to change agent.” 

Arms members of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) conduct a patrol in the Kanyaruchinya displacedment camp, located north of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo, on December 3, 2024. MONUSCO/Aubin Mukoni

“Those women who have been impacted, I think there is always a kind of hope that you need to maintain with them,” she said. Advocates attempt to “create resilience and encourage them that this is not the end of your life.”

“How do we continue surviving after we have gone through [this] situation? How are we engaging each other?” asked Dong. “Especially when this conflict is between some ethnic groups. How can we live together?” These are questions that many are asking as the region grapples with peace talks and survivors of sexual violence try to rebuild their lives, one step at a time. 

For now, Nsimire is still unable to return to her home in Katana with her three-year-old son. She said she wants the government to “bring to justice all those responsible for the atrocities,” and to help women to receive advice and counselling. “Women should be supported and empowered to exercise their rights.”

For reconciliation, advocates turn to the grassroots

Peace and accountability initiatives in DRC are slipping through the cracks as political considerations overshadow meaningful planning, according to a regional advocate who has twice provided civil society perspectives to the UN Security Council. They described the government’s decision last year to withdraw the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or MONUSCO, as a political gesture driven by election promises rather than a genuine commitment to peace.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi was “giving promises because people were tired of seeing MONUSCO around and not any change,” the advocate noted. 

While a transition plan had outlined a phased withdrawal and handover of responsibilities, they said implementation of the plan hasn’t been finished or consistent. Since MONUSCO’s exit from South Kivu, no follow-up actions have been initiated in North Kivu or Ituri, both regions still plagued by conflict. The advocate urged the Security Council to ensure MONUSCO’s work continues through national organizations — especially those led by women — with appropriate budgets and greater transparency.

Bunting, the York University academic, said the DRC’s greatest moments of progress have been defined by deeply localized efforts for justice reconciliation. “There have been really innovative prosecutions in eastern DRC, particularly around sexual and gender-based violence crimes,” she said. 

A landmark example is the Kavumu trials in South Kivu from late 2017 to mid-2018, when a military tribunal secured one of the first convictions of rape as a crime against humanity. “There’s been a real push in eastern DRC to localize justice,” Bunting said, highlighting how mobile court mechanisms could transform access to accountability in regions too often overlooked by formal institutions.

“We were born into this war, but we do not want our children to continue suffering like this. What we want is long, lasting peace,” said Budza, noting that current peace talks, while swift and likely to conclude by late June or early July, are marked more by potential mineral deals that would give the U.S., which is brokering the talks, access to Congolese resources in exchange for crucially-needed humanitarian aid.

“Peace should not be monetized in the form of minerals. We need to focus on the humanitarian aspect first.”