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One
tripped on a stone and fell. She had no time to react before one
of the men caught up.
"He raped me," she recalled two weeks later in Bulengo, one of
several camps near Goma sheltering about 600,000 people that
have fled conflict zones.
"He told me that if I screamed he would kill me," she said. "I
felt dirty."
The 35-year-old victim, who did not want to be named, is just
one among hundreds of displaced women who have been sexually
assaulted when they left the camps to get wood or food.
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) treated more than
670 women - or nearly 50 per day - at three sites between April
17 and 30 who had been subjected to sexual violence.
Over half were assaulted by armed men, it said last week, noting
that its figures were likely to be underestimates.
Rape has been widely documented as a weapon of war used by armed
militia groups that have been active in Congo's east since the
end of two civil wars waged between 1996 and 2003.
Unrest escalated after the M23 group staged a major offensive in
North Kivu province last year, forcing hundreds of thousands to
flee as the army fought back.
Many have sought refuge in crowded camps like Bulengo, where
humanitarian workers are struggling to cope.
Hungry mouths to feed push women outside the camp in search of
food and firewood to sell, making them vulnerable to sex crimes,
said MSF worker Delice Sezage Tulinabo.
Reports of gender-based violence in North Kivu were up more than
a third in the first three months of 2023 compared with 2022,
when more than 38,000 cases were recorded, UNICEF said this
week.
Most survivors reported being attacked by armed and displaced
men in and around the camps.
Humanitarian workers have also raised concern about the army. In
Bulengo, women said they had to pay soldiers to enter the
forest. Some of them also commit rape, they added.
Defence Minister Jean-Pierre Bemba said the allegations were
being investigated.
Yvonne Tumaini Asifwe, 55, decided to stop venturing outside
after two of her friends were raped. But she is already feeling
the pinch.
"What are we going to eat?" she asked.
(Reporting by Djaffar Sabiti; Writing by Sonia Rolley and Sofia
Christensen; editing by John Stonestreet)
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