Thousands of children subject to sexual violence in eastern DRC: Unicef

Children including toddlers represent more than a third of victims in nearly 10,000 cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence committed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the first two months of the year, the UN children's agency said on Friday.

M23 rebels seized parts of eastern DRC earlier this year as part of a rapid offensive that left thousands dead, including children, and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.

Unicef spokesperson James Elder told a Geneva press briefing that the rapes and other forms of sexual violence were being used as "a weapon of war" and were taking place once every 30 minutes on average, with toddlers also among the victims.

"We are not talking about isolated incidents, we are talking about a systemic crisis," he said, citing a database collected by organisations on the ground working on sexual violence which showed that between 35-45% of the total were under-18s.

"It is a weapon of war and a deliberate tactic of terror."

Elder, who spoke via video link from Goma, said that funding shortages were affecting the ability to treat survivors of sexual attacks. In a hospital he visited this week 127 rape survivors had no access to medical kits which can prevent an HIV infection in the immediate aftermath.

"The gaps in funding are life-threatening," he said.

Elder did not elaborate on the reasons for the funding shortages in DRC, although deep cuts by top donor the US to foreign aid have hit humanitarian programmes elsewhere.