Terrorist groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continued to terrorise communities throughout 2025, with children increasingly used as weapons of war.
Militias including the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamic-affiliated group, and the politically motivated M23 have waged decades-long campaigns to control parts of the DRC. These groups are notorious for abducting children from villages, forcing them into combat, labour, or sexual slavery. Many girls are repeatedly raped, and children are often compelled to adopt Islam or face death.
Abducted children are taken to militia camps where they are trained to fight, steal, and commit killings. Those who refuse face severe punishment or execution. Survivors often carry lasting psychological trauma and require years of treatment, in addition to medical care, to recover.
The ADF has particularly targeted children from Christian communities to intimidate families and reduce Christian populations. Survivors have shared harrowing accounts of their experiences.
One boy told France 24, “The night I was abducted, they killed my mother and kidnapped my older sister and me. The slightest mistakes are punished severely. For women, they kill their children and throw them into a hole. They sent me to kill people on my own, and when I refused, I was whipped all over my body.”
Other survivors reported that militants force communities to convert to Islam, killing those who resist. An 11-year-old girl, Esther, described being abducted in 2024 and repeatedly raped by multiple attackers. She said her body was badly injured and she feared future sterility without medical care.
James Elder, a spokesperson for UNICEF, warned that sexual violence against children in the DRC is widespread. He said that during the most intense phase of 2025’s conflict, a child was raped every 30 minutes, and that the assaults are part of a systemic crisis targeting the youngest members of society.
Reuters reported specific cases, including a 10-year-old girl raped by M23 fighters in February 2025 and a 17-year-old girl gang-raped by at least seven M23 fighters in January during fighting in Goma.
Dr Denis Mukwege, a gynecologist who has treated victims for decades, said the situation in the DRC is unprecedented in its brutality. “Congo is experiencing the most difficult and gruesome moment in its history,” he said. “Our children are being massacred, our women are being killed, raped, or raped and then killed. It is one of the most dramatic crises our country has ever experienced.”
In response, International Christian Concern (ICC) has been providing aid to orphanages in the DRC. Support is given to homes such as Compassion for Children in Distress in Butembo, Eastern DRC, which cares for over 70 children rescued from ADF attacks. Mbambu Dorcas, a caretaker at the orphanage, explained the importance of this help:
“Every month, when the support arrives, it’s like a reminder that we are not forgotten. These children have been through horrors no child should face, but here, they are slowly healing, laughing again, and dreaming. This funding is not just financial help; it is life, it is hope.”
ICC is also assisting in rebuilding an orphanage damaged by fire, which housed children whose Christian parents were killed by militants. The organisation provides monthly support for medicine and food for 150 children as reconstruction continues.
A caretaker at the orphanage said, “We are thankful to God for giving us the responsibility to receive children from all over the Congo and give them a chance to live. Many were rescued after their parents were killed by Islamic rebels, some even taken from their mother’s corpses. Millions of children in the Congo die after their parents are killed … but we have seen the hand of God in this work, and we are determined to continue rescuing orphans of war.”
Adapted from ICC.
