The number of rapes and other crimes of sexual violence remains high in the DRC. A United Nations Panel of Experts, which visited the DRC in 2010, found that the unprecedented scale of rape, including by civilians, was a consequence of the war.  Rape also continues to be used as a weapon of war in eastern DRC to intimidate the local communities as well as to punish civilians for their real or perceived collaboration with armed groups or the Congolese national army. Rape is also committed as a crime of opportunity alongside other human rights violations such as killings, wounding, abductions and/or lootings, in particular in eastern DRC. The Secretary-General of the United Nations has cited several parties to the DRC conflict for being credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape and other forms of sexual violence in situations of armed conflict in the annexes of his 2012 and 2013 Reports on Sexual Violence in Conflict².

Report by UN Joint Human Rights Office in the DRC (UNJHRO)