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00:00In the DRC, UNICEF says the rate of sexual violence against children has never been higher.
00:06M23 rebels seized parts of eastern Congo earlier this year as part of a rapid offensive that left thousands dead, including children, and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.
00:17During the most intense phase of this year's conflict in eastern DRC, a child was raped every 30 minutes.
00:25We're not talking about isolated incidents. We are talking about a systematic crisis.
00:31We are seeing survivors as young as toddlers. It's a weapon of war and a deliberate tactic of terror.
00:39UNICEF says children constitute up to 45% of the nearly 10,000 cases of rape and sexual violence reported to protection actors in the space of just two months.
00:49Given the fear and stigma surrounding sexual violence, the organisation fears it's just the tip of the iceberg.
00:56We are facing a real catastrophe. Access is a problem, as is also the fear.
01:03There's a fear among the survivors to come forward and to say that they have been subjected to sexual violence.
01:10The US was the main provider of humanitarian funding for the DRC, but foreign aid freezes imposed by the Trump administration have now endangered critical humanitarian programmes.
01:22UNICEF says that if it's unable to fill the funding gap, a quarter of a million children will miss out on vital services for gender-based violence.