By Nicholas Bariyo

KAMPALA, Uganda -- The United Nations' children's agency has accused armed men in eastern Congo of raping hundreds of women and children during a single week of fighting as Rwandan-backed rebels cemented control over the city of Goma, a vital humanitarian hub they seized from government forces last month.

The number of rape cases treated in scores of hospitals across the city jumped fivefold during the final week of January, when the M23 rebels first entered Goma and forcing government troops into a chaotic retreat, said Catherine Russell, executive director of Unicef. The agency Thursday said health authorities reported 572 rape cases, including 170 involving children, in the week of Jan. 27 to Feb. 2, up from an average of 95 cases a week so far in 2024.

It couldn't be determined whether M23 fighters or government troops were responsible for the spike in cases.

"The true figures are likely much higher because so many survivors are reluctant to come forward," Russell said in a statement presenting the agency's findings. "One mother recounted to our staff how her six daughters, the youngest just 12 years old, were systematically raped by armed men while searching for food."

The World Health Organization said it has documented some 42 cases of rapes among refugees including 21 one victims of gang rapes at least 10 hospitals around Goma.

A spokesman for the M23, which is currently in control of Goma, said its fighters hadn't participated in any rapes. A Congolese government spokesman couldn't be reached for an immediate comment.

The surge in sexual assaults pile more pressure on aid workers struggling to respond to the spiraling humanitarian crisis and who have been hampered further by constrained budgets following the Trump administration's order to freeze foreign aid, despite waivers and exemptions.

"Health workers are risking their lives ot address the rise in injuries, deaths, displacements and cases of sexual violence," said Payal Shah, a director at New York-based advocacy group Physicians for Human Rights. "Now they must do so without the vital support of foreign aid from the United States."

The resurgence of the long-simmering conflict has killed thousands of people and displaced more than one million others in Eastern Congo over the past two years, according to the U.N.

Last week, leaders of Eastern and Southern African trade blocs gathered at a summit in the Tanzanian port city of Dar es Salaam to discuss the crisis, with little successes. The leaders, including Rwanda's Paul Kagame and Kenyan President William Ruto, called for a cease-fire and direct talks between Kinshasa and the M23 rebel group.

But witnesses and aid agencies say despite M23's earlier declaration of a cease-fire following the capture of Goma, its fighters have continued to advance southward and are within around 20 miles from the city of Bukavu, the provincial capital of South Kivu.

There are also growing fears that the conflict may spill into the wider region like it did in the 1990s, when troops from at least six nations entered the Congo to back rival rebel factions, resulting in the mass plunder of the country's resources and the deaths of more than five million people from war famine and disease.

Regional countries are divided in the conflict, with member states of the East African community such as Uganda and Kenya backing Rwanda's call for dialogue with M23, while members of the southern block are backing Congo in its efforts to tackle insurgency.

South Africa, which has lost more than a dozen peacekeepers who were defending Goma, has called for more diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.

Write to Nicholas Bariyo at nicholas.bariyo@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 13, 2025 14:12 ET (19:12 GMT)

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