Ensuring Women’s Protection Amid Rising Conflict in East DRC

A displaced woman with her baby outside her slum house in DR Congo. - Refugees International

By Devon Cone , Abdullahi Boru Halakhe

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and especially the eastern part of the country, has endured decades of conflict, pitting government forces against rebel groups. The latest cycle of conflict between the government forces and M23 rebels has pushed about 1 million people to Goma—the capital and the largest city of the North Kivu Province. They are hosted in overcrowded camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) without adequate food, clean water, sanitation, healthcare, or education. Women have borne the brunt of the conflict, with belligerents accused of using sexual violence as a weapon of war. Due to many factors, including significant cuts in food assistance, gender-based violence (GBV) cases have increased five-fold over the last year, and M23 has encircled Goma—a humanitarian hub. The risk of Goma falling to Rwanda-backed M23, and the planned withdrawal of a 25-year-long UN peacekeeping mission at the end of April, could have devastating consequences for the safety of people throughout the region. The situation is deteriorating quickly due to decreased humanitarian funding and inadequate coordination across various humanitarian clusters. Women and girls face the greatest protection risks. 

The departure of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) will embolden rebels like M23 because the Congolese authorities have proven they are ill-suited to maintain security once MONUSCO departs adequately. The Congolese security forces have a long history of egregious human rights violations. Against such a background and fluid security situation, closing the UN peacekeeping mission without sustainably addressing the underlying drivers of fragility and conflict could lead to more intercommunal conflict and a more profound humanitarian crisis. 

Influential entities, including the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), together with the UN Security Council, France, and the United States, should embark on a robust diplomatic and political process to halt M23’s Goma takeover and find a sustainable political solution to the protracted humanitarian crisis. The Nairobi and Luanda Processes need to be revitalized with support from the UN Security Council, which should use all its powers, including sanctions on individuals and countries destabilizing the DRC, and extend MONUSCO’s term in consultation with the DRC government. 

In the meantime, donors should increase funding for the DRC’s Humanitarian Response Plan, especially for programs addressing GBV. Humanitarian actors should prioritize cluster coordination to address displacement holistically, given the linkages between the lack of humanitarian aid and the resurgence of GBV cases. The DRC’s protracted crisis induces an understandable fatigue among aid actors and donors. However, ignoring the DRC crisis at this critical stage will create a far more dire protection crisis.

Recommendations       

To DRC Authorities:      

• Agree to postpone the planned phased departure of the UN peacekeeping mission (MONUSCO) considering the deteriorating security situation in the country’s east, particularly Goma.

• Fully implement Congolese laws, including the amended Congolese Penal Code, Law on Parity 2015, and revised Family Code 2016. These laws empower women and prevent gender discrimination, especially regarding land ownership and access.

• Increase the police presence in and around the camps in coordination with humanitarian actors, especially in areas where women commonly collect firewood. 

• Allocate more of the national budget to the Ministry of Gender, Family and Children for GBV mitigation and response activities. Include dedicated HLP funding for coordination and sex-disaggregated data collection.  

To UN agencies:

• The Humanitarian Country Team should systematically include Housing, Land, and Property (HLP) issues in key documents like the yearly Humanitarian Needs Overview and the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for the DRC.

• UN agencies, including the International Organization for Migration (IOM), should continue to work with the DRC government to negotiate access to more land for IDPs to settle near Goma.

• The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Secretariat should conduct an Operational Peer Review as outlined in the IASC guidelines post Scale-Up to evaluate and improve the cluster system and the coordination of the humanitarian response. When the review is complete, it should share the results and findings.  

To UN Member States:

• The UN Security Council and MONUSCO Troop-Contributing Countries should work with the DRC government to extend the mandate of MONUSCO and postpone its planned withdrawal.

• The UN Security Council—especially the United States and the DRC penholder, France—should pressure the Congolese government, M23, and supporting governments to adhere to the Nairobi and Luanda processes. They should cooperate with the regional blocs, the East African Community (EAC), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). In the immediate term, they should embark on a robust diplomatic and political process to halt M23’s Goma takeover.

• The UN Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Informal Experts Group (IEG) should visit the region to highlight the deteriorating situation for women and girls.

• The Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict should continue to denounce the situation of women and girls in the DRC.

   To Humanitarian Actors:

• Prioritize the establishment of Women and Girls Safe Spaces (WGSS) in all the IDP camps and ensure that they have psychosocial and livelihood support and referrals for medical assistance. 

• Provide consistent and adequate cash and food assistance to IDPs, integrating GBV prevention and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) referral mechanisms into distributing food and non-food items (NFIs).

• Members of humanitarian coordination mechanisms like the UN cluster system should support an IASC-led Operational Peer Review to enhance coordination, communication, and data sharing across sectors. Request funding earmarked for these coordination activities.     

To Donors:     

• Increase funding for DRC’s Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) given the rapidly deteriorating situation, and prioritize GBV-related food assistance and protection activities.

• Fund the coordination, data collection, and strengthening of Housing Land and Property rights to enhance women’s access to land tenure and thereby reduce their exposure to GBV.   

• Ensure that funding to local partners in IDP camps in the DRC is subjected to HLP due diligence and links to the Water, Sanitation, and Health (WASH) and Shelter clusters.  

• Provide funding to UN agencies and NGOs specifically for transporting GBV survivors from rural areas to medical facilities and, when possible, legal services.

• Fund local organizations to set up livelihood trainings, create more livelihood opportunities, and provide cash to set up small businesses or find other ways to use their livelihood skills.

• Prepare for the possibility of M23 advancing toward Goma by ensuring that funding is flexible and recipients can modify the purpose of and timeframe in which they use the financial support.  - Refugees International