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In the DRC, UNICEF says the rate of sexual violence against children has never been higher
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M23 rebels seized part of eastern Congo earlier this year as part of a rapid offensive that left thousands dead, including children, and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes
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During the most intense phase of this year's conflict in eastern DRC, a child was raped every 30 minutes
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We're not talking about isolated incidents. We are talking about a systematic crisis
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We are seeing survivors as young as toddlers. It's a weapon of war and a deliberate tactic of terror
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UNICEF says children constitute up to 45% of the nearly 10,000 cases of rape and sexual violence
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reported to protection actors in the space of just two months. Given the fear and stigma surrounding sexual violence
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the organisation fears it's just the tip of the iceberg. We are facing a real catastrophe
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Access is a problem, as is also the fear. There's a fear among the survivors to come forward
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and to say that they have been subjected to sexual violence. The US was the main provider of humanitarian funding for the DRC
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but foreign aid freezes imposed by the Trump administration have now endangered critical humanitarian programs
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UNICEF says that if it's unable to fill the funding gap, a quarter of a million children will miss out on vital services for gender-based violence
