Motivations for sexual violence in armed conflicts: voices from combatants in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

ABSTRACT

This paper sets out to explore sexual violence in armed conflict from the perspective of the combatants themselves. We interviewed combatants in South Kivu in eastern DRC about their experiences with sexual violence, what they think causes it, and how it might be mitigated. Although respondents in this study strongly believe that sexual violence is a serious crime and an immoral act which should be avoided in their ranks, they sometimes perpetrate it systematically, suggesting a disconnect between their good soldiering ideals and own actions. Combatants report that they want to protect women and men in armed conflicts, but the contexts in which they operate lead them, contrary to their wishes, to behave violently against the civilians they are supposed to protect. To mitigate sexual violence in armed conflicts they propose improving their socioeconomic conditions, getting rid of militias and uniting the Congolese army, punishing perpetrators and adequately training new soldiers joining the united army.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual violence
• immoral act
• armed conflict
• South Kivu
• DRC
• combatants
• prevention
• suggestions

Acknowledgements

Our deepest thanks go to our interviewees and to all the people who facilitated our fieldwork. Lynn Nygaard from Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) provided excellent editing assistance. Julia Uyttewaal from Washington University in St. Louis and Susanne Alldén from Linnaeus University gave good comments for the improvement of this article. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of our institutions , and any errors in the text are ours alone.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.