Up to 167 women have been raped and burnt alive after hundreds of prisoners escaped a jail in the Democratic Republic of the Congo city of Goma, according to a United Nations document seen by the.
The UN has“rape and exploitation [are] becoming tragically routine” in the region.
It comes after a rebel group called M23 took control of the city last week.
The UN estimates around 2,800 people have been killed in the violence.
Context
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a central African nation that borders several others, including Rwanda.
It is rich in natural resources, but many of its people live in extreme poverty, mainly due to hundreds of years of colonisation, conflict and exploitation.
Ongoing violent conflict in the late 1990s and early 2000s related to ethnic tensions in the region further destabilised the DRC.
In 1994, extremists from a Rwandan ethnic group called the Hutus mounted a genocide against another group, the Tutsis. The genocide was also perpetrated against some Hutus.
Many Hutus who were not involved with the genocide fled across the border into the DRC. Following a war, Tutsis took control of Rwanda’s government and soon invaded the DRC on the grounds of self-defence.
The Tutsis were joined by troops and militias from other countries in back-to-back wars in the DRC from 1996-97 and 1998-2003.
Recent Conflict
, M23, which includes many Tutsi rebels, pushed into Goma on the DRC’s border with Rwanda.
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UN staff reported M23 cut off main roads and the airport, opened fire on hospital patients, and bombed humanitarian camps. Water remains cut off in the city.
A ceasefire was declared earlier in the week, but Reuters reports it has already been broken, with M23 claiming to have taken a new city.
The UN says Rwandan troops are helping M23, which Rwanda denies.
Women
Overnight, the BBC reported on a leaked UN document which said 167 women had been raped and burned alive after a group of men escaped a Goma jail.
It’s believed the inmates burned down the prison with the women – also prisoners – inside.
Agence-France Presse has published footage of men believed to be the escaped prisoners walking through Goma.
Aid
A UN official working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Vivian van de Perre, has called for the immediate reopening of Goma airport to evacuate wounded people and allow aid supplies and staff into the region.
“The people of the DRC deserve peace, security, and stability,” van de Perre said.
Van de Perre said the situation in the region is “changing literally every hour,” limiting the distribution of humanitarian aid.
