Grainy video footage, shot from above barbed-wire fencing, captures the frightening chaos — figures scrambling in the gloom, smoke billowing into the overcast sky. Behind the haze and destruction lies an atrocity of staggering brutality. 

More than 150 female prisoners were raped and then burned to death on January 27 when male inmates staged a mass jailbreak and set fire to a prison at Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, to join the surging conflict between the government-backed military and the Rwanda-bolstered militia group, M23. 

Only between nine and 13 women survived, according to the United Nations Office of Human Rights — each of them also subjected to sexual violence. Prison guards shot some of the escaping inmates. The scene, though horrifying, barely made a ripple in the global news cycle. The same day, the M23 rebels captured Goma, with more than 3,000 lives lost in the process. 

The violence and mayhem are deepening. 

“We are looking at wanton violence in a failed state. There is no real state. Not for years,” career diplomat and former United States Ambassador to multiple African nations spanning the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations, Cameron Hume, tells The New York Sun. “Close to a Hobbesian hell as can be found.”

Violence Soaring 

Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have seized two key cities in eastern Congo within a month, expanding their long-running conflict against an overstretched Congolese army. Over the weekend, they advanced into Bukavu, a strategic gold-trading hub, meeting little resistance and further destabilizing the mineral-rich region.   

Unlike other armed groups in eastern Congo, which are primarily composed of ethnic Hutus who fled Rwanda after the 1994 genocide, M23 is largely made up of ethnic Tutsis who claim to defend their community from discrimination. Critics argue their campaign serves Rwanda’s political and economic interests. 

The Democratic Republic of the Congo government accuses Rwanda of backing M23 to amplify their regional influence — a charge that officials at Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, deny.  

As fighting intensifies, thousands have been displaced, peacekeepers have been killed, and fears of a wider regional war grow. At the heart of the conflict lies control over eastern Congo’s vast deposits of gold, tin, and cobalt — resources fueling both local bloodshed and global supply chains, with horrific human rights abuses committed along the way. 

“Rape as a weapon of war has long been a defining feature of conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the recent prison break in Goma has further exacerbated the devastation faced by Congolese women due to gender-based violence,” Europe-based health and humanitarian research expert, Jonas Ecke, tells the Sun. 

As Mr. Ecke points out, the prison break and the attack on women demonstrate that such crimes are not solely committed by M23.

“The Congolese army itself has been implicated in multiple mass rapes,” he said. “A lack of professional discipline, weak command structures, and a culture of impunity have resulted in the systematic mistreatment of civilians, further fueling the crisis of sexual violence in the DRC.”

The recent Goma prison break and the systematic violence directed at women isn’t the first time in recent months that such a tragedy has unfolded in the embattled nation, with women paying the price. 

In September, more than 260 female inmates were reportedly raped during an attempted mass escape from Kinshasa’s Makala Central Prison. At least 129 people were killed as prison guards opened fire on fleeing inmates in a facility designed for 1,500 but overcrowded with more than 15,000 prisoners.

Viral videos captured prisoners moving through the darkness with torches before chaos erupted — locks were forced open, gunfire rang out, and screams filled the air. As male inmates stormed the main gates, others broke into the women’s section, attacking female prisoners at knifepoint. Survivors described women being raped en masse, some by more than a dozen men.

The escalating violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo overall has brought an alarming increase in sexual violence. The rising violence is worsened by increased attacks on children, including a sharp spike in sexual assaults in recent weeks. 

“The most vulnerable groups such as women and children are often forced into refugee camps that lack consistent security and safety,” a Research Analyst at the Counter Extremism Project, Riza Kumar, tells the Sun. “Even after reporting rape and other forms of sexual violence, perpetrators often go unpunished. Preliminary efforts made by the DRC and several U.N. bodies have yet to result in notable inroads against human rights violations.”

The risk of a regional war 

The rising tensions threaten to disrupt and spill over into the broader region, especially with neighboring countries including Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi already entangled in the conflict. 

Uganda is accused of supporting rebel factions, yet Kampala denies it, claiming they’re fighting anti-government groups. Burundi has also sent troops to aid the Congolese military, though reports suggest they may withdraw as the fighting intensifies.

The conflict, rooted in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, has persisted for more than three decades, with millions of lives lost. The violence began when refugees and combatants poured into the Democratic Republic of the Congo, sparking ongoing unrest and reached a pivotal point in November 2012.

The M23 rebel group first seized the strategic city of Goma after defeating government forces, yet they retreated weeks later under international pressure, including threats of sanctions and diplomatic intervention from regional leaders and the United Nations. Ms. Kumar stressed that M23’s current offensive is stronger and more organized than in 2012, bolstered by Rwandan support and limited resistance from the Congolese army. 

“The takeover of Goma in 2012 saw a much stronger, swifter international response. At that time, several countries, including the U.S. and EU, suspended aid to Rwanda,” director of programs at the Congo Research Group at New York University, Joshua Walker, tells the Sun. “That has not occurred this time, with the exception of Belgium’s recent aid suspension to Rwanda and the worldwide suspension of foreign assistance by the United States.”

The United States allocated more than $175 million in aid to Rwanda in 2023. The assistance was suspended later that year by the Biden administration amid accusations of facilitating the recruitment of child soldiers in support of M23. 

Critics have lamented the Trump White House’s recent suspension of foreign aid, of which the United States has long provided upward of 70 percent of the Congo’s humanitarian funding. 

“Medications become inaccessible, and there is nowhere to turn to ease the pangs of deep hunger,” Mr. Ecke said. “This should be a moment for EU countries to step up, but for now, their primary focus remains on Ukraine.” 

Mr. Hume also pointed out that, for decades, the United Nations had a peacekeeping force in the Congo to “provide rule of law, protect human rights, and control the ethnic gangs,” which ultimately proved ineffective.

“Peacekeepers do not generally use force; ethnic gangs do,” he continued. 

The peacekeeping mission ended last year. 

There is also cause for concern that the uptick in violence proliferates the spread of United States-designated terrorist groups operating the region. This week, 70 Christians were found beheaded in a church in Congo’s North Kivu, reportedly by the Islamic State affiliate, known as Allied Democratic Forces. 

The United States Response

On a January 27 call with President Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Secretary of State Rubio condemned the M23 advance into Goma and reaffirmed United States support for Congolese sovereignty. 

After speaking with President Kagame of Rwanda the following day, Mr. Rubio “urged an immediate ceasefire in the region, and for all parties to respect sovereign territorial integrity.”

Mr. Trump has acknowledged the situation as a “very serious problem.” Whether the administration will take a more heavy-handed approach to the ongoing conflict has not been public. 

On Thursday, Washington announced sanctions on Rwandan General James Kabarebe, who is a deputy minister of foreign affairs, for his role in supporting M23. The country’s leadership called this “unjustified and unfounded.”

A source close to the administration tells the Sun that officials are expected to weigh in even more on the situation in the coming days and will likely “issue demands for certain groups to vacate specific areas,” and that Mr. Trump is “committed to global peace and stability, as that ultimately benefits the United States.”

The State Department did not respond to a request for further comment.

The situation in the mineral-rich region, meanwhile, is deteriorating — and experts emphasize the importance of also looking inwards for solutions. 

“To break the cycle of violence in the DRC, justice and accountability must be central to any political solution,” a Senior Campaign Manager for Amnesty International in Africa, Christian Rumu, tells the Sun. 

“The DRC’s ongoing failure to govern effectively and address the legitimate grievances of its citizens — including discrimination against ethnic minority groups — alongside issues of corruption, a weak military, and disorganized armed forces, will perpetuate the cycle of violence.”