INVESTIGATION OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN EASTERN DRC Strategy for Combating Sexual Violence should urgently be resourced and completed, and should form the basis for rapidly expanding basic survivor support, including PEP provision, into all health posts and centers across the country. This includes regular training for staff and regular supplies of medicine to ensure that each and every basic health facility has the capacity to provide post-rape treatment. Meanwhile, specialist care should be made more widely available by increasing the number of referral centers like Panzi Hospital. Training programs and quality checks on existing services are needed to ensure that survivors receive the full range of support needed, including effective psychosocial services and some form of livelihoods assistance during recovery. • Investing in the resourcing and coordination of referral systems. Less than 1% of rape survivors reporting to Panzi were accompanied by their husbands and nine times as many had been abandoned by their spouse. Stigma and its social and familial consequences remain significant barriers to accessing timely care following sexual violence. The easier it is for survivors to access assistance locally, the greater the likelihood that they will be able to manage the risk of others finding out about the sexual violence (i.e. their absence will be for a far shorter period). It is therefore imperative that comprehensive and updated information on existing services be made widely available at the community level, including to non-literate and marginalized groups. This will require coordinated efforts bringing together service providers, local authorities and other Congolese and international protection actors, with effective UN backing under the Comprehensive Strategy for Combating Sexual Violence. 2. The Congolese government and its international allies should work to reduce sexual violence linked to military action. The data reviewed in this report corroborate other observations indicating that the incidence of sexual violence spikes at times of active military engagement. The number of women seeking treatment at Panzi Hospital spiked at the time of armed clashes between government forces and rebel groups in the Bukavu area. This finding is consistent with other sources, which point to the increased risk of reprisal attacks against civilians by belligerents at times of conflict and the dangers inherent in the concentration of armed forces among the civilian population and in the deployment of known human rights abusers within the various belligerent groups. The finding also reflects the increased vulnerability of women and girls during wartime, when they may be forced from their homes and separated from family and support networks. The Congolese government and its international allies should work to reduce sexual violence linked to military action, by: • Promoting non-military means of addressing security threats wherever possible. The devastating fallout from ongoing military offensives for civilians is further indication that alternative strategies are urgently needed. The FARDC, lacking the basics of training and welfare provision for its troops and their dependants and facing constant security threats across a vast geographical area, has proved largely incapable of protecting civilians, and has been responsible for widespread violence against them, particularly sexual violence. In these circumstances, priority must be given to non-military means of disarming rebel groups, both in the government’s own policies and in international support to them. 53