Written by Jermaine Magethe
Three children were murdered by the M23 rebel group in Bukavu, a town in south Kivu that was captured by the militants on Sunday 16th Feb 2025, . The incident occurred after the movement occupied Bukavu last week, and the witnesses reported seeing some of the children carrying arms. Meanwhile, an OHCHR spokesman condemned the attacks against hospitals and humanitarian warehouses and intimidation of the judiciary, all blamed on the quick advance by M23 troops across North and South Kivu.
In the east DRC, the crisis has driven hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people from their homes within a matter of weeks. According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, 10,000 to 15,000 crossed into neighboring Burundi in a few days. The majority of the new refugees are Congolese escaping worsening conditions in and around Bukavu. UNHCR spokesman Matt Saltmarsh said that these new refugees added to over 91,000 refugees and asylum-seekers from DRC who had fled decades earlier to Burundi. He highlighted, “The east DRC situation is extremely volatile, with the latest conflict in South Kivu having displaced more than 150,000. At least 85,000 of them are currently living in makeshift sites with very poor access to water, shelter, and health.”
This rich mineral eastern region has for a long time been marked by chaos and the proliferation of militias, who have repeatedly displaced the congolese from their homes and resettled them in refugee camps or across neighbouring borders. The fighting became far more intense in late January when predominantly Tutsi M23 fighters captured territory in North Kivu along the Goma frontier, eventually pushing into South Kivu and Bukavu, the country’s second-largest city.
Additionally, there are shocking accounts of severe abuse against children during combat. All warring parties have been accused of massive abuse, rape, and other sexual abuses on a larger scale than the recent years. Between 27 January and 2 February 2025, there was a five-fold increase in the number of rape cases in 42 health centers, with 30 percent of the victims being children, UNICEF partners reported. The actual numbers are even higher, experts add, since most of the survivors remain too fearful to report the attacks. Troubling, relief organizations are fast running out of medications that prevent HIV infection following rape.
Amidst the turmoil, an estimated hundreds of children have become orphaned and displaced from their families and become even more vulnerable to abduction, forced recruitment and sexual abuse. In just two weeks alone, over 1,100 unaccompanied minors have been identified in North and South Kivu—a tally that continues to rise. UNICEF responders are in a race against the clock to document these children, place them with temporary foster caregivers and administer simple medical attention as well as psychosocial relief.
Even prior to this recent increase in violence, the recruitment of children to be used in recruiting into armed groups was increasing in the region. Now, with conflict actors demanding mobilization of youth fighters, this abhorrent practice is set to intensify further, with reports indicating that children aged 12 years and above are being recruited or coerced into these armed groups.