Help Women Victims of Rape During Warfare In The Congo

Warfare in eastern Congo has affected women in many terrible ways. FONDAMU is seeking to reach out to those who have been raped by militiamen in a tumultuous period since the mid 1990s.

By way of some background, a population of 700 thousands makes up the tribal chiefdom of Ngweshe, which is composed of 16 localities or counties named: Burhale, Ciherano, Ikoma, Irongo, Izege, Kamanyola, Kamisimbi, Kaniola, Karhongo, Lubona, Luciga, Lurhala, Mulamba, Mushinga, Tubimbi, and Walungu. Ngweshe is located in the Walungu territory, South Kivu, and it is under continued destabilisation ever since the arrival in 1994 of one million Rwandan refugees and their armed militiamen after genocide in Rwanda. In mid 1994, the agro pastoral population of Ngweshe, who live poorly on a heavily occupied, eroded, red soil, more than doubled over few months. The destabilisation was exacerbated by three waves of recurrent wars in 1996, 1998 and 2003 in Kivu and most of Eastern Congo. Also the Rwandan militiamen have continued until now to make incursions in the villages of Ngweshe by plundering, mass killing, raping, and kidnapping for ransom. As a consequence 75% of the population of Ngweshe, at one time or another during this instable period, has been internally displaced, within 70 miles, toward Bukavu, the South Kivu capital city, as well as in other villages and localities of Ngweshe.

Most dramatically there have been several thousands of raped women; the exact number is unknown as nobody has yet made the counting. However for the sole locality of Kaniola there were 2,007 raped women between March 2003 and March 2005 (The Potentiel daily newspaper of Kinshasa, Edition 3372 of Saturday 12 March 2005 citing local NGO). From this, one may extrapolate that at least 10 thousands of women have been raped in Ngweshe during the 13 year protracted warfare.

These women were met at Kamisimbi, in the court of Muku Agricultural School, on June 28. They were afraid to look at the camera, as several of them were traumatised by their experience.

The raped women or girls are not only physically and psychologically injured, but as a consequence they are daily humiliated and rejected by their own society. They also contract venereal diseases especially HIV-Aids, of which 60% of armed militiamen, Rwandese and Congolese alike, carry (cited in “La guerre dans la guerre: violences sexuelles contre les femmes et les filles dans l’Est du Congo,” Human Rights Watch, New York, 2002, p.62.). The raped women and girls are impoverished and no longer participate in the regular village survival activities, especially agriculture, animal husbandry, collecting water and firewood, etc. Because of lack of moral support in their own community, most of the raped women do not say anything about the rape and violence they endured. Some of them move to the city for anonymity and there they might become prostitutes.

FONDAMU staff talked in 2006 to several of these raped women, and some could confide in us. We were heartbroken by their horrible stories. Most of them were raped by a group of 2 to 10 men, others individually, many were ordered by felons to perform sexual acts with their relatives in front of the militiamen, and some were mutilated. Some rapes ended with the murder of the victims.

On 7 July 2006, we visited the Convent of Kakono near Ciherano. The night before our arrival, these nuns were attacked in their Convent by armed militiamen, who stole several of their belongings, but the militiamen could not get to the nuns who had barricaded themselves in a fort room. However the attackers looted their dispensary. Meanwhile the militiamen raped and killed a woman in the village of Kakono that night. FONDAMU seeks help in re-equipping the dispensary, and providing other support for these nuns.

Most of the women we talked with could not face the camera. Vumilia, a 25-year-old woman from the locality of Karhongo 15 miles from Bukavu, told us that she was raped three times by several militiamen, and she got pregnant and had a child from one of those occasions. When she looks at her 3 year-old boy she cries with sorrow when she remembers the felony she endured, but she says that the child was an innocent person, and she lives to raise him. Her biggest need is to take an HIV-Aids test to see if she and her child have been contaminated. However she does not know where to go, and she has no money to support her and her child in the Bukavu city where there are medical facilities. FONDAMU seeks to provide for her needs and those of other innocent women who have been forced into such situations.

Now we have learned that the general hospital of Panzi in Bukavu offers free screening for HIV-Aids of the raped women and girls, and it is providing health services to these women, including surgery and HIV aids therapy. Pharmakina, a local pharmaceutical, is waiting for permission to manufacture generic anti-HIV tri-therapy in Bukavu to lower the cost of these medicines.

The Hospital of Panzi is the only facility in the area that systematically provides appropriate health care to the women raped during the war in South Kivu. The Hospital provided statistics of the numbers of rape victims it has served between 1999 and 2006. These are as follows:

Raped Patients	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	Total	%
Hospitalized	43	62	132	290	409	717	924	500	3077	31.47
Ambulatory	0	0	0	0	997	1847	2666	1191	6701	68.53
Total	43	62	132	290	1406	2564	3590	1691	9778	100.00

Reference: Le Courrier du Kivu, N°1, dated 30May to 15June 2007, Page 12. Bukavu Bi-weekly newspaper, DRC.

The numbers disproportionately reflect urban dwellers and people displaced to Bukavu, as only few raped women from Ngweshe can afford to make the trip to the city for therapy. We hope the trend is diminishing, but it was rising up to 2005. Women who have been traumatized in this way might have to endure bad memories for a long time. They need help in regaining their independence and their joy in life.

FONDAMU staff with this group of women in Mubumbano near Mushinga in June 2006. This is an area that was occupied by local militiamen, who violated many women and caused much anguish.

Femmes Solidaires de Burhale (FESOBU) is an association of women which aims to empower women for self-sufficiency, and to assist the rape victims. FONDAMU is teaming up with FESOBU to create Social Homes for the vulnerable and raped women. This partnership was formed to: (a) assist the women in their recovery from humiliations and psychological trauma; (b) help them get an HIV test and access to health care; (c) learn a job skill or craft (agriculture, animal husbandry, sewing) or gain access to adult education through evening sessions of reading and writing; and (d) to boost Ngweshe economy by putting these women back to work with microcredit programs and alternative income generating activities. The goal is to enable them to meet their own needs and become self-reliant.

We are submitting a grant proposal of US $50,000 to the DR Congo Social Fund for the building of a model social home (covering 384 m²) to recuperate at least 120 women, to start, in the Burhale locality of Ngweshe. Through the social home project (FoSoMo, Foyer Social Modèle), we will provide shelter and some piece of land to the women to start their own gardening or animal husbandry and micro-economic activity that eventually will enable them to support themselves. Many of them will also be taught a craft such as sewing. Once this home is built and functional, 15 more homes will be constructed to cover each locality of Ngweshe and the Kivu province to meet the needs of the women and their children.

This group of FONDAMU volunteer women and girls in Kamanyola was pleased to contribute their ideas and survey results to the discussion about setting priorities for development based on the needs of the local people. Among these were some women who had been raped during the warfare.

Please Donate to FONDAMU to provide shelter, health care and training in job skills for at least 120 rape victims who were assaulted during the war in Ngweshe, Upland Kivu of Eastern Congo:

Make a Monthly Donation	$ for months.
Give a one-time donation	$
Assist Construction of a Social Home (FoSoMo)
Support Health Care for the Rape Victims
Support Craft Learning for the Rape Victims
Support Income Generating Activities for the Rape Victims