Orlando Bloom: DRC's Children—Recruited To Fight, Killed, and Raped—Need Violence To Stop Now | Opinion

I recently visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), one of the world's most complex humanitarian crises.

The DRC is home to the largest reserves of coltan—a mineral used in the smartphones we are glued to—as well as significant quantities of the world's cobalt and copper. The country has the Earth's second-largest rainforest after the Amazon. As the second-largest country in Africa, the DRC is the size of Western Europe. It should be one of the richest countries in the world.

Yet, it is one of the world's poorest countries, and as a result of the ongoing armed conflict and inter-ethnic violence, poor governance, and a lack of infrastructure, the Congolese people are not benefiting from this immense wealth.

After relative stability in recent years, renewed conflict since March 2022 in three provinces in eastern DRC has resulted in huge displacement. There are now around 6.4 million people displaced from their homes in the east of the country, including 1.5 million living in camps around the city of Goma, with new families arriving every day. Across the whole country, there are 7.3 million displaced people—an unprecedented number for the DRC. The majority of these people are children and women.

Every single person I met during my five days in the country is seeking safety and security, and new opportunities to earn an income. Prior to this conflict, many of these individuals and families were relatively successful as farmers, traders, and transporters. But in the rush to escape violence, they left everything behind and it's unclear when it will be safe to return to their homes.

As is the case in most conflicts, children and women are most affected. Malnutrition remains critical, with more than 1.2 million children under 5 years of age requiring treatment for severe wasting. At the end of last year, 848 schools were closed due to insecurity, disrupting the education of more than 300,000 children.

The DRC regularly ranks among the top three countries with the highest number of grave violations against children. Last year, the U.N. verified more than 3,750 violations against children, including 1,861 children who were recruited and used by armed groups. These are just the reports that the U.N. was able to verify, and the true number is likely even higher.

Almost no one is talking about these atrocities against children.

But what haunts me the most is the staggering rates of sexual violence against children and women, including at Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps. Two out of five survivors assisted by the humanitarian community in 2023 across the country were children under 18.

I met some of these girls and women in South Kivu at the Panzi Hospital founded by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege.

Here, I met Jemima,* who was abducted at the age of 4 by an armed group and taken to live in the bush. Within a few years, she was being raped on a regular basis. By the time she escaped at the age of 9, her little body was so damaged that hospital staff weren't sure she would survive. But after many years and many surgeries, much medical assistance, and psychological support, Jemima told me she is strong, has found self-worth, and is currently studying to be a nurse so she can help other women. Ultimately, she dreams of becoming a doctor.

I also met Beatrice* who, at the age of 17, was raped by five men. Because of the resulting pregnancy, she was rejected by her family. After she found her way to Panzi, she was hospitalized for four months because her injuries were so severe. After she recovered, she tried to go back home with her newborn but settling back into her community proved impossible. Her family didn't want them around and called them cursed. So now she lives and works at the Panzi center. She has been there almost a decade. Her little boy, who is now 9 years old, also attends school there. He loves to dance, she told me proudly.

The loudest message coming out of the DRC is one of war and pain, and the stories I heard are heartbreaking, but I also saw how the long, slow work of change continues taking shape thanks to UNICEF and its partners. What also gives me hope is the young people I met who are actively finding ways to come together and creatively support each other.

I want to share Jemima's plea to me. "I want people to know what is going on here," she told me. "This cycle of violence needs to stop."

Humanitarian aid to the DRC remains one of the most underfunded crises in the world. Too little support is coming through which forces impossible choices between providing life-saving nutrition and health services or enough clean drinking water or protecting children from violence, including sexual violence.

I stand with UNICEF in asking partners for more support to help millions of children in eastern DRC who need our assistance, and calling on all parties to the conflict to negotiate a comprehensive solution for lasting peace.

*Real names have not been used to protect the children's identities.

Orlando Bloom is a British film and stage actor who was appointed as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2009, in recognition of his commitment to the rights of children around the world. He is well known for his roles in the Pirates of the Caribbean films and the Academy Award–winning trilogy The Lord of the Rings.

Orlando has supported UNICEF since 2007, when he first visited schools in the remote districts of Kaski and Chitwan, two of the poorest areas of Nepal. He has since travelled extensively with UNICEF to countries including Bangladesh, Jordan, Liberia, Niger, Ukraine, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

In 2015, he received the BAFTA Britannia Humanitarian Award in recognition of his work with UNICEF. Orlando was also presented with the Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award at the 2015 UNICEF Snowflake Ball.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.