Sixteen-year-old Darkuna watched, terrified, as six gun-wielding men ransacked her home. “For God’s sake, what do you really want?” she cried.
One of the fighters looked directly at the girl and responded: “I want you.”
After stealing the family’s valuables, each of the armed men raped Darkuna and her 18-year-old sister. Their parents, helpless, were forced to watch.
Darkuna is a pseudonym for the teenager, who provided this testimony to the United Nations’ children’s agency UNICEF via a partner organization on the ground in Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Fighting has escalated in the mineral-rich region since the rebel coalition Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC), of which the notorious M23 armed group is a key member, captured key territory earlier this year – including Goma, which as of late January was home to about 3 million people, of whom 1 million were displaced, according to a February Relief Web report.
The conflict has exacerbated what’s been described as an epidemic of rape and sexual violence that aid groups say often victimizes the youngest and most vulnerable.
“The scale of sexual violence against children in eastern DRC is beyond a crisis – it is a tragedy. We are seeing an alarming increase in cases, not seen in years, with many young survivors bearing the unimaginable scars of war,” Ramatou Toure, chief of child protection for UNICEF in the DRC, told CNN.
At CNN’s request, UNICEF and Save the Children shared testimony gathered from survivors of rape who sought treatment at clinics affiliated with those organizations. The names of the victims and any details that might identify them have been withheld for their protection, with pseudonyms used throughout instead.