Children face lethal violence, rape in east Congo war

(Reuters) - As Rwanda-backed rebels closed in on eastern Congo's largest city, retreating army soldiers barged into Suzanne Amisi Wilonja's home near the airport to loot, firing indiscriminately and shooting her 10-year-old son Sylvain in the head.

Clashes in the streets prevented the family from reaching doctors until the following morning, and by then Sylvain was long dead, one of a growing number of child victims of lethal violence spreading through the mineral-rich region. 

"We were afraid to go out to take him to the hospital because the soldiers were crowded near our door," a tearful Wilonja told Reuters as she described watching her son die.

An army spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about the incident in late January in Goma. Reuters could not independently confirm the details.

The United Nations has warned of surging child recruitment, abductions, killings and sexual violence as the rebels, known as M23, press on after seizing more territory in eastern Congo than ever before.

A military prosecutor has accused fleeing soldiers of crimes including rape and murder.

Last week the U.N. human rights office said M23 fighters summarily executed three children in Bukavu, the region's second-largest city which fell earlier this month. An M23 spokesperson has denied the allegation.

The victims in Bukavu were holding weapons left behind by fleeing soldiers, Patrice Vahard, head of the rights office in Kinshasa, told Reuters.

He added that he could not say exactly how many children had been killed or wounded in similar circumstances, citing challenges to investigating as fighting persists.

"There is a climate of terror in Bukavu that makes it difficult for parents to testify," he said, but "one child is enough - we don't need numbers".

RAPES INCREASING

The M23 offensive is the gravest escalation in more than a decade of the long-running conflict in east Congo, rooted in the spillover of Rwanda's 1994 genocide into Congo and the struggle for control of Congo's vast mineral resources.

Rwanda rejects allegations that it supports M23, the latest in a long line of ethnic Tutsi-led rebel movements to emerge in Congo's east, with arms and troops. It says it is defending itself against the threat from a Hutu militia, which it says is fighting alongside the Congolese military.

The recent hostilities have brought an increase in the sexual violence that has long plagued the region.

In the week after Goma fell, 42 healthcare facilities in and around Goma recorded 572 rape cases, including 170 children, said Lianne Gutcher, chief of communications for the U.N. children's agency in Congo.

That is up from 95 cases of rape per week in 2024 in the same facilities, she said.

"Rapes were perpetrated by armed men. It is suspected that all parties to the conflict committed sexual violence," she said.

A medical worker in Goma who treats sexual violence survivors said there had been an increase in "serious" cases.

"There were women and girls who were raped to the point of destroying their bladders," the worker said, speaking on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.

"We haven't seen anything like that in a long time."

Gang rapes of young girls have been reported in both Goma and Bukavu, though data were still being collected, Vahard said.

Congo has not commented on reports concerning its troops, and has also called on the U.N. to investigate violations it blames on M23 rebels and Rwanda. Rwanda has rejected any responsibility. M23 rebels have not responded to requests for comment.

'MOST VULNERABLE'

The U.N. refugee agency has also described children succumbing to exhaustion as their families try to escape to Burundi to stay ahead of the fighting.

"When they follow their parents, they are the most vulnerable. They cannot run like their parents," Vahard said.

Even as fighting continues in North and South Kivu provinces, M23 has vowed to restore order in Goma and Bukavu, re-opening ports and announcing plans to retrain police officers.

It comes too late for people such as 19-year-old Emile Bashali, whose baby sister was killed when a bomb hit the family home as Goma fell.

"The baby started to cry. I rushed into the room to get her" but she had suffered serious shrapnel wounds, he said.

Doctors at the hospital tried to operate, but "30 minutes later they came to tell us that our baby had died," Bashali said. "Our baby's name was Keyna. She was one year and four months old."

(Reporting by Congo newsroom; Additional reporting by Sonia Rolley in Paris and Ange Adihe Kasongo in Kinshasa; Writing by Robbie Corey-Boulet; Editing by Alex Richardson)