Eastern Congo: two organisations accuse M23-AFC of violating children’s rights

Kinshasa, January 22^nd, 2026 (CPA) – The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) and UNICEF have accused, in their reports, the M23-AFC, supported by the Rwandan army, of serious violations of children’s rights in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an expert has revealed on Thursday in an interview with CPA. « The results of the CNDH report are very worrying. We have documented more than a thousand cases of child rape in Nord-Kivu, Sud-Kivu and Ituri, while UNICEF has indicated that in the same provinces, conflict-related sexual violence has increased constantly since 2022, with a marked increase in cases involving girls, who represent 47% of survivors, » has explained Samuel Atweka, an expert at the CNDH. ACP/