Rutshuru, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), August 2025

Sam Bradpiece, field communications manager, MSF

2025 has seen a spike in violence in eastern DRC, with MSF teams treating more than 3,600 cases in the first six months of the year alone. And that shows no signs of decreasing any time soon.

In some MSF facilities, civilians account for up to 80% of those treated for violent injury. Those violent injuries can very often be bullet wounds. I've seen a number of very young patients suffering from bullet wounds, often coupled with other health problems like malnutrition or even malaria, but also attacks with bladed weapons. There are some people who were whipped, tortured, and bombed.

On-screen text: Civilians are often caught in the crossfire, but they are also directly targeted by armed groups. In Binza, Rutshuru territory, hundreds of people were killed in July 2025.


This woman is a survivor of these massacres. The picture that emerged from various patient testimonies is that in July, and to a lesser extent in August, armed men—some cited these armed men as M23—arrived in the fields and shot hundreds of people. The men who were shot were subsequently decapitated, while the women and children, for the most part, were rounded up and taken to the side of a river where they were shot.

There were a number of survivors, mostly people who jumped into the river before they could be shot and managed to make it to the other side. Some of those survivors then explained how they were raped.

There were many people who were unable even to go into the fields and collect the bodies of their loved ones. And this woman was among the survivors who said that she's now scared to go back to the fields to work.