The new European Union (EU) foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, used the December European Parliament plenary to deliver a scathing attack on those using rape as a weapon of war pointing specifically to two African countries.
The former Estonian prime minister who replaced Spaniard Josep Borrell on 1 December picked out the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sudan as where sexual violence is used as a weapon.
She told the plenary in Strasbourg, France, “horrific wars are taking place today” and, as an example pointed to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) statistics from the DRC. These showed over twenty-five thousand victim and survivors of sexual violence across the central African country last year.
“That is more than two people every hour,” she said adding three months ago (September 2024) 80% of displaced women in camps had reportedly been raped.
In Sudan, where a major humanitarian crisis has and is unfolding with 25 million people needing support, rape and gender-based violence are battlefield tactics, she told the plenary.
6.7 million people are at risk of gender-based violence in the war-torn east African country, with displaced, refugee and migrant women and girls particularly vulnerable.
“The two main parties to the conflict are accused of sexual violence, with Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters and allied militias having committed sexual violence on a large scale, including multiple occurrences of sexual slavery.
“Sexual violence in conflict is a war crime,” she said, adding, “in DRC and Sudan, it is part of daily life. It is under-reported and likely to be far worse than we imagine. Whatever the EU can do to change this, we must do.
“In DRC, as we support regional peace initiatives – the Luanda and Nairobi processes – we have also sanctioned individuals who are known serious human rights violators, to complement United Nations (UN) sanctions.”
Over the last two years the EU has provided over 50 million euros to tackle gender-based violence and looking forward she wants the European bloc to remain committed to a strong global response to conflict-related sexual violence.
“First, it is global condemnation and a global response that will send the clearest message to perpetrators that their actions will be punished.
“Second, this requires strong legal systems to hold criminals to account. Globally, four in five women and girls live in countries without substantive legal protection against gender-based violence.
“Third, it requires more humanitarian funding that explicitly addresses gender-based violence. We need to do much better than spending a meagre one percent of global humanitarian funding to tackle violence against women and girls,” the plenary heard.
