YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon – A leading Christian aid organization has described the Democratic Republic of the Congo as the “rape capital of the world” while also noting that most of the victims are Christians because the Democratic Republic of the Congo is an overwhelmingly Christian nation.

said Jeremy Frith, Chief Operating Officer (USA) of Barnabas Aid USA, a Pennsylvania-based organization dedicated to helping persecuted Christians around the world. turning point Violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has resulted in gross human rights violations, including the rape of women and girls and the recruitment of children as child soldiers, he said.

“Due to constant attacks, the Democratic Republic of Congo is said to be the ‘rape capital’ of the world,” Frith said. turning point.

“There is almost no region in the DRC that is not under pressure from conflict, but the areas that have suffered the most recently are the North Kivu and Beni regions on the border with Uganda and Rwanda,” he said.

Frith’s comments follow a report by Physicians for Human Rights on October 22 that said the number of documented sexual assaults in the Democratic Republic of Congo increased from 40,000 in 2021 to nearly 90,000 in 2023.

Representatives of the group say they interviewed local doctors about rape victims and the stories they were told were chilling: Children as young as 3 were being raped; victims were sometimes held in captivity for days or weeks; others came in with sharp objects.

Doctors for Human Rights Director Saman Zia-Zarifi described the level of sexual violence as “shocking” and “astonishing”.

He suggested that current statistics may actually pale in comparison to actual figures. He said many survivors, especially girls, were reluctant to report. Moreover, the majority of survivors do not have access to clinicians, and worst of all, an undetermined number of victims are murdered.

The Doctors for Human Rights report is supported by a report published two weeks ago by Médecins Sans Frontières, which said it documented an “explosion of sexual violence” and dealt with more than 25,000 victims of sexual assault, compared to an average of 10,000 last year. The victims were a year ago.

Frith told turning point Most of the victims were Christians, perhaps because the DRC is a largely Christian country: 95.8 percent of the population of 105 million are Christians. According to the Vatican, more than 52 million Catholics live in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Christians have suffered tremendously at the hands of the M23 rebels and many others,” Frith said.

On October 3, approximately 18 Christians were killed in separate attacks in Ituri in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with the Islamic State of Central African Province claiming responsibility.

Before 18 people were killed in October, more than 45 people were killed in the Lala camp near Bule in North Kivu on June 12.

“In January, 23 people were shot to death with a machete in Makugwe village of Beni municipality in the same region. The murders are appalling, and we continue to wonder how more than 50 years of massacres in the Democratic Republic of Congo have prevented any resolution,” Frith said.

“Rape, murder, mass shootings, destruction of churches, homes, farmland and businesses; Orphan children are used as sex slaves or child soldiers or forced to work in mines, and the list of atrocities goes on. This is the situation Christians face, Frith said. turning point.

“As unarmed civilians, they fall victim to every atrocity in the region at the hands of different rebel groups, each with their own agenda,” he said.

Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is home to at least 120 armed groups, some supported by neighboring countries such as Rwanda. Prominent among these are M23 and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which continue to wreak havoc in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. M23 is primarily an ethnic Tutsi rebel group with ties to the governments of Rwanda and Uganda; ADF is a militia group affiliated with ISIS.

Decades-old conflicts have killed millions of people and displaced millions more; The United Nations reported in March 2024 that at least 7.2 million people are currently internally displaced in the DRC.

Frith said it was becoming increasingly difficult for charities like Barnabas Aid to work due to growing insecurity.

“Barnabas Aid has not been able to do as much as we wanted to do due to these challenges,” he said, but there is no giving up.

“We have recently had to connect with our partners in Uganda and through the church, particularly the Anglican Church in Kasese, to help reach some communities in the North Kivu region. We are currently developing projects there and reaching out to the countryside.”

However, Christians in the war-torn district have only one wish: A return to peace.

“The cry from the hearts of the people we interact with is for the killings to stop so that people can begin to rebuild their lives and communities and shape a future for themselves,” Frith said.

“Many people know they will never get justice, but they at least want to be allowed to live their lives without fear. They are already traumatized and many have lost years without being able to go to school or continue their education, especially young people who have lost decades of their lives in conflict. They desperately want peace. “Whether the international community actually cares is a different thing.”

While they wait, Frith said Barnabas Aid is “working to meet their immediate needs and help with farming, medicine and schools where possible, as well as some economic strengthening plans.” We are still developing these together with our partners. “These have not yet been put into action, but we pray that we can start seeing results early next year.”