Women cross-border traders experience sexual violence, harassment and exploitation, ranging from verbal sexual harassment to rape, and often citing pressure from border officials, a mostly male workforce, to provide sexual favours in exchange for better treatment at the border, e.g. to avoid being detained, or goods being impounded. And border officials are one coping mechanism to manage and mitigate the risks of sexual violence and harassment.

Available evidence from Rwanda and DRC Cross borders, where the experiences GBV mostly caused by terrorists, which high rates of sexual harassment and violence against women cross-border traders became barriers to the most of rural women traders, for example, 37% of women cross-border traders, 11%-54% of women cross-border traders in the DRC.

Women cross-border traders experience economic violence and coercion, including, discrimination when obtaining trade-related paperwork, delays at the border, unwarranted impounding of goods, and bribery and corruption, including coercion into paying informal fees and/or higher bribes than male traders. The available evidence suggests that over half of women cross-border traders experience economic violence and coercion by some terrorists’ groups and officials near the borders mostly in the DR Congo.

Nyirandirabika Donatha, Gitesi Sector and Claudia Uwimana, Gishyita Sector, Karonfi District, as fruits women traders, several times have experiences GBV, thus most of the time choose to reduce business, also emphasized that communications infrastructures have been barriers while faces violances by the terrorist attacks near cross borders between Rwanda and DR Congo.

A broader context of high rates of GBV; violent and unstable borders in some contexts (including in the Horn of Africa); and unequal access to information between border officials and cross-border traders, including around what taxes and fees are due, as well as knowledge of the ‘rules of the game’, linked to traders’ levels of literacy, familiarity with the border, whether they have crossed before, and whether they have social or professional networks or associations they can leverage.

According to UNCTAD 2018b, Fear of the cost and complexity of customs procedures and of corruption 33 among the mentioned terrorists groups and customs officials can push women into informal cross border trade. Women cross-border traders may be more likely than men cross-border traders to avoid formal border crossings, and choose informal routes instead, partly due to the challenges mentioned in previous sections According to (GBV, gender specific corruption, and discrimination). But informal border crossings pose some of the same risks, including of GBV (UNCTAD, 2018)

However, The Ministry of Trade & Industry is committed to facilitate smooth Cross Border Trade by building key trade border infrastructure and building capacity of small-scale traders which will significantly transform how Cross Border Trade is conducted. The joint initiative under the Greatlakes trade facilitation, a world bank support project is also supported by the Ministry of ICT and Innovation in collaboration with MTN Rwandacell PLC (MTN Rwanda). As part of the joint initiative, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MINICOM) has donated 900 smartphones to Women Cross-Border Traders to enable them use cashless transactions in their operations and access other government digitally supported services as part of Connect Rwanda Initiative. Rubavu, by March 18, 2022

In her remarks during handover, Hon. Minister Beata Habyarimana, the Minister of Trade and Industry said that the “phones were given to traders who had never owned a smartphone before and will help them to communicate with other traders but also access Government digital services that enhances their business.

These risks of GBV include coercion and sexual violence by smugglers and intermediaries, as well as by terrorists group officials. For example, in East Africa, women informal cross-border traders reported that if they were caught crossing the border informally, they could be detained, their goods could be confiscated, they could be made to pay large bribes or perform sexual favours to be released or avoid having their goods confiscated.

Beyond economic and sexual violence, there are also reports of women cross-border traders experiencing other forms of violence, including physical violence and verbal harassment, such as physical assaults, robbery, insults, threats, being stripped and spat on. High levels of verbal abuse against women cross-border traders, e.g. 38% of women cross-border traders in DRC report verbal abuse by Some terrorist groups includes FDLR border officials.

According to the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, the FDLR is believed to be responsible for about a dozen terrorist attacks in 2009. The FDLR counts among its number the original members of the Interahamwe that led the 1994 Rwandan genocide. On August 24, 2010, the United Nations confirmed that rebels from the FDLR and from the Mai Mai militia raped and assaulted at least 154 civilians from July 30 to August 3, in the town of Luvungi in North Kivu province. In April 2020, the FLDR was accused of attacking a civilian convoy in the Virunga National Park.