A/HRC/45/49 capacity of judges to combat sexual violence and implementing measures to facilitate access to justice for victims (CAT/C/COD/CO/2, para. 33). At the universal periodic review of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on 5 July 2019, it was recommended that the Government strengthen its efforts in the fight against sexual violence, improve the provision of support and services to survivors, ensure the protection of survivors and witnesses, and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice and that reparation is granted (A/HRC/42/5, para. 119.195). 1. Current situation and action taken by the Government 33. Conflict-related sexual violence remains widespread, with 1,376 victims and 31 per cent of cases attributable to State officials. Women accounted for 80 per cent of victims and children 19 per cent. The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Congolese national police continue to be listed in the annex to the report of the SecretaryGeneral on conflict-related sexual violence (S/2020/487). 34. The Province of North Kivu was the worst affected, with 40 per cent of the cases documented by the Joint Office during the reporting period, owing in large part to confrontations between rival armed groups in Masisi, Nyiragongo, Rutshuru and Walikale territories and in the areas bordering Virunga National Park. The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo were the primary perpetrators of conflict-related sexual violence in Beni territory in the course of ongoing operations against the Allied Democratic Forces. 35. Approximately 20 per cent of the cases documented by the Joint Office during the reporting period occurred in South Kivu, where Fizi territory was the most affected. The main perpetrators of sexual violence in that province were combatants of Twa-majority armed groups, the Raia Mutomboki armed group and various Mai-Mai groups. 36. The intercommunal violence in Ituri Province also saw an alarming rise in conflictrelated sexual violence. The Joint Office documented cases of rape, gang rape and sexual slavery perpetrated by armed assailants from the Lendu community on women and girls, mostly from the Hema and Alur communities. Members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo deployed in the area also committed conflict-related sexual violence. 37. Although the trials of Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, 3 in Goma, and Justin Banaloki, 4 also known as Cobra Matata, in Kinshasa, were considerably delayed, the Congolese courts have pursued their efforts to combat impunity. For example, on 19 November 2019, following hearings in Kitutu (Mwenga territory) and Kigulube (Shabunda territory), in South Kivu, the military tribunal of the garrison of Bukavu, with the support of the Joint Office, sentenced the chief of the Mai-Mai Raia Mutomboki group, Frédéric Masudi Alimasi, also known as Kokodikoko, to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity, including rape, executions and plunder. The courts also sentenced three combatants of the Force de résistance patriotique de l’Ituri to 20 years’ imprisonment for war crimes, including rape. 38. On 19 June 2019, the Senior Military Prosecutor’s Office of the Operational Military Court of North Kivu issued an arrest warrant for the chief of the armed group Nduma défense du Congo-Rénové, Guidon Shimiray Mwissa, for crimes against humanity, including for having ordered the systematic rape of women and girls in Walikale, Lubero and Masisi territories since 2014. However, the warrant has yet to be executed. 39. In November and December 2019, the Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral on Sexual Violence in Conflict visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo to support the Government in its efforts to eradicate such violence. During her visit, an addendum to the 2013 Joint Communiqué between the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the United Nations on the Fight Against Sexual Violence in 3 4 GE.20-11014 The former chief of the group Nduma défense du Congo, Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, surrendered to the authorities in 2017. The former chief of the Force de résistance patriotique de l’Ituri, Justin Banaloki, was arrested in Bunia in January 2015, then transferred to Kinshasa. 7