GENEVA: The decades-old conflict in Congo’s mineral-rich east has “drastically deteriorated” since early 2022, and gotten even worse since last October, with sharp increases in sexual violence, the number of wounded, and child recruitment, the top Red Cross official in the country said Wednesday.
Francois Moreillon called Congo a “double-edged crisis,” with the last 30 years of conflict weakening the capacity of government, including at local levels, to deliver basic services such as water, education and food. When it came to protecting civilians, Moreillon said the crisis was “extremely acute.”
Eastern Congo has struggled with armed violence as more than 120 groups fight for power, land and valuable mineral resources, while others try to defend their communities. Some armed groups have been accused of mass killings.
The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, known as the ICRC, said “all indicators are going through the roof” since Oct. 1 when fighting resumed between Congolese government forces with their allies, and the M23 rebel group.
Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi, along with the US and UN experts, accuses neighboring Rwanda of giving military backing to M23. Rwanda denies the claim, but in February it effectively admitted that it has troops and missile systems in eastern Congo to safeguard its security, pointing to a build-up of Congolese forces near the border.
Moreillon told several reporters at the office of the ICRC’s UN envoy that the number of displaced Congolese rose from 5.6 million in early 2022 to nearly 7.4 million now, which makes Congo “one of the most serious crises for displacement on the planet.”
He said another escalating indicator is the level of sexual violence. In Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo, he said the number of incidents of sexual violence in the first half of 2024 rose 90 percent compared with 2023 — from 7,500 incidents last year to around 15,000 this year.
Moreillon cited the case of a woman the ICRC cared for who had been raped twice and explained that women in groups went to fetch wood “taking condoms with them to try to convince the rapist to wear them while they were raped.” This was not just to prevent getting pregnant or sexually transmitted diseases, but also to prevent them from being ordered to leave the house if their husbands learned they were raped, he said
Moreillon said sexual violence can not only be a weapon of war but also a product of decades of war where “anyone with a gun feels he can do whatever he wants” — and the fact that there is impunity for these crimes “does not help.”
The ICRC has also witnessed an increase in child recruitment, with estimates that it’s increased roughly 80 percent in some areas. “That could be only the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
A key reason is that fighting has gotten so intense that armed groups need new recruits to replace dead combatants, he said, and children can either be convinced or forced.
Several kids he interviewed said they joined because they thought they would get respect, he said. When families don’t give their children to armed groups they are “taxed” and then hand them over to the recruiters.
Another indicator is the number of wounded civilians seeking treatment, Moreillon said.
The ICRC supports three hospitals in eastern Congo including one in Goma where it had to increase the number of surgical teams from two last year to three this year who are working day and night, he said.
Last year, Moreillon said, 1,050 cases were treated at the Goma hospital, and just in February this year the ICRC treated 350 cases — a third of last year’s caseload in just one month.
“So that’s a clear indicator of the severity of the intensity of the conflict,” he said.
The ICRC head in Congo said what has changed is that more sophisticated weapons are being used combined with increased fighting in crowded urban settings.
He said 45 percent of those wounded by weapons are civilians, and about 40 percent of the wounds are caused by shrapnel which wasn’t the case last year when most wounds were caused either by bullets or knives.
What about deaths? Moreillon said it’s very difficult to get figures, but if the number of wounded “is drastically increasing” this must also be the case for the number killed.
Moreillon appealed to donors to help the Congolese in need, saying his budget for Congo this year — 85 million Swiss francs ($95 million) — is only 22 percent funded.
Red Cross envoy: Congo conflict has worsened with sharp increases in sexual violence and wounded
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Red Cross envoy: Congo conflict has worsened with sharp increases in sexual violence and wounded
- Francois Moreillon called Congo a “double-edged crisis,” with the last 30 years of conflict weakening the capacity of government
Gaza student evacuated to UK with her family after government climbdown
- Manar Al-Houbi was initially denied permission to bring her husband and children after changes to UK rules on foreign scholarship recipients
- Several students still stranded in Gaza as relocation deadline looms, after refusing to abandon family members
LONDON: A student from Gaza granted permission to live and study in the UK has been evacuated from the Palestinian territory, with her family, by the British government.
Manar Al-Houbi won a full scholarship to study for a doctorate at the University of Glasgow. It also allowed her to bring her husband and children with her, and they applied for the required visas. But shortly before her studies were due to start, UK authorities told her the rules for international students and their dependents had changed and her family could no longer accompany her.
Shortly after her story was reported in October, however, the government backed down as said it would consider evacuation of international students’ dependents on a “case-by-case basis.”
Al-Houbi and her family are now in Jordan, on their way to the UK, The Guardian newspaper reported on Friday. The British scheme for the evacuation of students from Gaza is due to expire on Dec. 31. People who have attempted to use it have described it as being riddled with issues, as a result of which some students with scholarships have been left stranded in the Palestinian territory.
Several told the Guardian they had decided not to travel to the UK because they had felt pressured into leaving loved ones behind, including children.
Wahhaj Mohammed, 32, said he was told by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to travel to the UK alone, and his wife and children would be allowed to join him later. Two months after he arrived in Glasgow, his family are still in Gaza with no time frame for them to follow him.
“The uncertainty affects every aspect of my life here,” he told The Guardian. “It’s difficult to settle, to feel present or to engage academically when the people you love most remain living under constant threat.”
The Guardian said UK officials were “hopeful” his family would be evacuated in 2026 but could offer no guarantee about when this might happen.
Another student, Amany Shaher, said she refused to leave her family behind in Gaza and as a result was denied permission to travel to the UK this week. She does not know whether she will be permitted to defer her scholarship to study at the University of Bristol.
The 34-year-old, who has three children, said: “How can I even consider leaving my children behind in Gaza? Nowhere else in the world would a mother be expected to part so easily from her children. It’s dehumanizing. We have a right to stick together as a family and not be forced to separate — that should not be too much to ask.
“None of us know if the UK’s student evacuation scheme will be extended or not. We haven’t been given any clear guidance or timelines and have no idea what 2026 will bring.”
Mohammed Aldalou also refused to leave behind his family, including his 5-year-old autistic and non-verbal son, to take up a scholarship for postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics.
He said the Foreign Office had suggested to him he travel separately from them, as they did with Mohammed.
“They should ask themselves what they would do if they were in my shoes,” he said. “It’s heartbreaking that after everything we’ve been through, we’re being asked to make this impossible decision.”
Sources told The Guardian it was unlikely the Foreign Office would extend the scheme to allow students to travel from Gaza to the UK later, but that a meeting took place last week with the Department for Education to discuss whether students could begin their studies online.
