ActionAid Ireland said that reports of sexual violence in Eastern DRC surge by almost 700% in March as armed conflict intensifies

May 19, 2025

ActionAid’s teams recorded 247 cases of sexual violence in March alone – almost eight times as many as in February.
In two months, survivors reported 381 cases of sexual violence – half the number recorded for the whole of 2024.

Escalating attacks by armed groups in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have sparked an explosion of sexual violence against women and girls in the first months of 2025, reported ActionAid Ireland. Data collected by ActionAid’s teams in North and South Kivu shows a near 700% increase in reports of sexual violence between February and March.

As conflict intensified across affected regions of Eastern DRC, ActionAid’s teams recorded 381 reports of sexual violence against women and girls in March and April alone – more than five times the number recorded in January and February. Shockingly, in just two months, survivors reported half as many cases as were documented throughout all of 2024, highlighting a disturbing surge in gender-based violence linked to escalating armed conflict.

“These numbers are horrifying, but they barely scratch the surface of what’s really happening,” said Karol Balfe, ActionAid Ireland CEO. “Many women and girls are too afraid or traumatised to report what has happened to them. And ActionAid is just one of many organisations documenting these cases – when you look at the full picture, the scale of the violence against women and girls is even more staggering.”

“The spike in cases over the past few months is clear evidence that this horrific sexual violence is being used as a deliberate weapon of war.”

Reports of forced marriage have also risen sharply since the start of 2025.In just the first four months, ActionAid recorded 58 cases of forced or early marriage – already reaching 86% of the total 67 recorded throughout all of 2024.

One of ActionAid’s protection team in North Kivu, who recorded the reports of violence from women and girls, said: “Rape and sexual violence are daily terrors faced by women and girls here. Many survivors are afraid to report their assaults, fearing stigma. Our teams encounter countless cases where victims remain silent, unwilling to report”.

More than 2.7 million people are currently displaced within North Kivu, many sheltering in overcrowded, makeshift camps around Goma. The forced dismantling of some of these camps by armed groups has put women and girls at even greater risk, ActionAid warned, with many women being sent back to dangerous areas controlled by armed groups, where they are subjected to rape, sexual violence and forced marriage.

Saani Yakuba, Country Director for ActionAid DRC said: “Women and girls have suffered as collateral damage in this conflict for far too long. Despite two temporary ceasefires agreements, fighting is ongoing. The international community must act urgently to secure a permanent ceasefire and ensure the withdrawal of armed groups from populated areas such as Kashebere and Goma to protect civilians.”

ActionAid and its partners continue to provide emergency support and protection for survivors of sexual violence in Eastern DRC, including mental health support, cash assistance and shelter.

The Profit Driving the Crisis

Despite their overwhelming contribution to global emissions, fossil fuel companies continue to attract significant financial backing—driven by their enduring profitability. This is starkly illustrated by the case of ExxonMobil, the top fossil fuel investment held by asset managers based in Ireland. In 2023, ExxonMobil reported €33.63 billion ($36 billion) in profit. That is almost twice the GDP of Botswana (€18.1 billion) and nearly three times Namibia’s GDP (€11.5 billion).

Ireland plays a hugely disproportionate role in facilitating investments into fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil. In 2023, the investments made into fossil fuel companies by investment managers based in Ireland generated an estimated 72.5 million tons of CO2e. This is more than the CO2e emissions for the entire country of Ireland—and more than ten times that generated by Sierra Leone.

The Global Human Impact

The climate crisis is here, now, and it is causing disproportionate harm in the Global South. In Bangladesh, rising sea levels and increasingly severe cyclones are displacing coastal communities, with projections indicating that 17% of the entire country could be underwater by 2050. The legally binding Paris Agreement on climate change explicitly acknowledges the importance of tackling private finance. Its three overarching goals are: keeping below 1.5C of warming; increasing adaptation and making finance flows consistent with low emissions and resilience.

This gives a clear mandate for action: both tax reform and corporate regulation are needed to tackle financial flows, and both nationally in Ireland and at EU level, ‘polluter pays’ taxes are lacking and regulation of the financial sector remains weak and fragmented. While EU regulation exists, it is designed more to nudge investors toward more sustainable investment practices by increasing transparency and reporting levels than to enforce strict standards. And it is moving in the wrong direction: the recently passed EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive excluded investments; and now the EU Commission’s Omnibus legislative proposal threatens to undo the limited gains made on climate plans, as well as blocking future attempts for stronger action at national level.

The Risk of Inaction

Fossil fuel investment is too profitable to remain weakly regulated. If Ireland continues with its current strategy of encouraging FDI at all costs, and relying on weak EU regulation, we are headed for catastrophe. The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change has repeatedly warned that every fraction of a degree beyond 1.5°C brings irreversible consequences: collapsed ice sheets, vanishing coral reefs, and extreme weather events that will make vast regions of the planet uninhabitable. And yet, companies are developing oil and gas fields that could push global warming beyond 2°C.

Our research found that 91% of the investments made into fossil fuel companies by investment managers based in Ireland were to companies that have plans for fossil fuel expansion like these. Ireland cannot afford inaction on this issue.

About This Research

The figures in this report regarding investment from Ireland are based on new research commissioned by ActionAid Ireland and Trócaire. In the paper, we uncover the scale of fossil fuel investment through Ireland, who the investors are, and in which fossil fuel companies they are investing. We analyse the current regulatory framework and explain why it is inadequate—and moving in the wrong direction. And we make specific recommendations for change, which are summarised below.

Summary of Recommendations

Regulate the private financial sector
Ireland must end its outsized role as an enabler of destructive fossil fuel investment. Ireland should introduce a strong gender-responsive national human rights and environmental due diligence framework which includes the regulation of investors with respect to human rights and the environment and climate. The transposition of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive could achieve this if downstream activities are included and the Omnibus proposal is rejected. Ireland should prohibit investments in fossil fuel expansion and require investors to implement climate transition plans consistent with a 1.5°C climate limit.

Endorse the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty
Ireland should endorse developing a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to curb fossil fuel expansion and commit to a fair and funded phase out of fossil fuels.

Support tax justice
Ireland should support bold and fair new global tax rules through the UN Framework Convention on Tax, should adopt all OECD BEPS measures, and should conduct an updated and comprehensive spillover analysis of its tax policy. Ireland should take coordinated action globally, at the EU level and domestically to introduce a range of new taxes to mobilise finance needed for climate justice, based on ‘polluter pays’ and social equity principles such as wealth taxes for the highest earners, climate damages tax on investors, fossil fuel production taxes and levies on aviation and shipping.

Finance a just transition
Ireland must also meet its fair share climate finance obligations under Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement, and pay our ecological debt to the Global South. Ireland should support conditionality-free debt cancellation for countries on the front lines of the climate crisis, commit to a new UN Framework Convention on Sovereign Debt, moving debt negotiations from the IMF to the UN, and to a debt workout mechanism that is fully representative and fair.

ActionAid Ireland said that reports of sexual violence in Eastern DRC surge by almost 700% in March as armed conflict intensifies

The Profit Driving the Crisis

The Global Human Impact

The Risk of Inaction

About This Research

Summary of Recommendations

Further reading

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Women are rising