GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO – The drive to Walikale, a territory in the Congolese province of North Kivu, is bumpy, dusty and tiring. But the unbearable ride is filled with breathtaking scenery. Trees dangle listlessly into the middle of the road whispering secrets to passersby. Thick banana plantations dot the green landscape. But the scenic territory belies the high incidence of rape in Kivu, a region in the east.
Luwando Mawazo’s last name means “tribulations” in Swahili. At 55, she has seen her fair share of them.
On what she describes as a normal day last year, Mawazo accompanied her husband to the farm one morning, as she had done countless times since they were married 30 years ago. They were tilling the land, hoping to take home about 4,600 francs, or $5 USD, each for their day’s work. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to keep their family of 10 afloat.
“It is then that masked and armed men came in from the jungles,” she says. “They attacked my husband first – hitting him with wooden sticks and then shooting him right in front of my eyes.”
They killed him, she says, with no signs of emotions in her eyes.
“It is then that they began to rape me, one by one,” she says, this time tears welling in her eyes. “By the time I passed out, four of them had raped me.”
It was not until the next day that relatives came to the farm to look for Mawazo and her husband and found her in a coma next to her husband’s body. Her neighbors took her to HEAL Africa, a hospital that specializes in treating rape victims in Goma, a nearby city, where Mawazo underwent 11 reconstructive surgeries.
“I underwent 11 surgeries, but much has changed,” she says. “I cannot control my bowel movements and, many times, I involuntarily pass urine and stool[s].”
In addition to losing her health and her husband, her relatives shunned her. She says they now view her as dirty and say her rape shamed them and their community.
“My relatives said I had brought shame to the family,” Mawazo says.
Mawazo says she didn't report the men because she didn’t think any action would be taken against them.
Advocates and rape survivors in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than 100 rapes have already been reported so far this year amidst fighting among armed groups over the mineral-rich land, say mass rapes continue despite the presence of the U.N.’s largest peacekeeping mission in the world. They also cite few arrests by the government, which maintains that foreign rebels are responsible for the rapes, despite the sentencing of national troops last month for rape. Survivors say that even their families have turned on them because they say that rape shames the family name. With nowhere else to go, the women stay in the hospital, where they learn life skills and support one another.
In April 2010, Margot Wallstrom, U.N. special representative on sexual violence in conflict, described the mineral-rich Democratic Republic of Congo as “the rape capital of the world.” At least 200,000 women have been raped since 1999, according to the U.N. The First Congo War started in 1996 after conflict spilled over from the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo’s neighbor to the east. In 1998, the Second Congo War began between eight African nations and 25 armed groups, mainly over minerals. It became the deadliest conflict since World War II, with much of the fighting centralized in Kivu. Although the war officially ended in 2003, conflict continues in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and 120 rape cases against both rebel groups and the national army have been reported since the beginning of 2011, according to the U.N.
Advocates say women’s bodies continue to be a major battleground in the war here, yet rape victims have received little help.
“Everybody has failed these women – the United Nations, the African Union, the DRC government,” says Vicky Kirimi, a human rights lawyer.
But last month, the U.N. and its partners opened a center for rape victims in Bukavu, a city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. It aims to provide a safe haven for survivors, as well as training programs for them.
The U.N. also has 19,000 uniformed personnel deployed in the east – the largest U.N. operation in the world. But the peacekeepers can’t be everywhere at once, says Hiroute Guebre Selassie, head of the U.N. Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“The deployed peacekeepers sometimes number from 50 to 100 and sometimes cannot protect everybody in a village of 10,000 or 50,000,” Selassie says. “And, therefore, there are lapses, and that’s how these rapes occur because we might have been here while something is happening there.”
In his speech celebrating the country’s 50th anniversary last summer, President Joseph Kabila said the country was recovering slowly but surely. He also called for the withdrawal of U.N. peacekeepers before this year’s presidential election in November. Lambert Mende, government spokesman, said peacekeepers would remain in North and South Kivu.
Still, Kirimi says that when rapes do occur, police do not enforce the law.
“The arrests have been miniscule,” Kirimi says. “When you look at Walikale, where 300 women were raped in four days and only three people were arrested, it means you can do this and women will take you nowhere.”
Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo remains the worst affected because of the presence of rebel groups fighting the government for control of the sought-after minerals, including tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold. Feller Lutaichirrwa Mulwahale, deputy governor of the North Kivu region, blames the militia groups from neighboring Rwanda for the rise in rape cases in the east.
"Rape is a foreign thing,” Mulwahale says. “Traditionally men would not even think of having sex with their mothers. We blame the foreigners [rebels] for [these] acts. We are trying to empower our women by putting them in positions of power. That way, they can help fight the rapes."
But government soldiers have also been involved in rape cases. Last month, a military court in the east sentenced a high-ranking commander – for the first time in the country’s history – to 20 years in prison for sending his troops to rape, beat and rob people in Fizi, in South Kivu, on New Year’s Day, according to the U.N. Three subordinate officers also received 20 years in prison, while five soldiers received between 10 and 15 years in jail.
Amnesty International, a human rights organization, called the convictions a step in the right direction. But citizens still say the punishment wasn’t stringent enough.
In addition to citing a lack of help from the government and international organizations, many rape survivors say that even their families oppose them. Mawazo is among the many women sheltered at the HEAL Africa hospital, which has received grants from UNICEF and other organizations to provide free health and psychosocial services for victims of gender-based violence. Mawazo says her in-laws shunned her and she has not heard from her children.
"I leave them to God,” she says, as tears fill her eyes. “What can I do? I'm not well enough to fend for myself, let alone them, and my in-laws will not accept me back. Hopefully one day, we will meet again."
Clementine Kasongo, who is also recuperating at HEAL Africa’s hospital after being raped, says that her husband married a new wife just days after she was raped.
“He said I was dirty, and that it was possible that I would infect him with HIV/AIDS,” she says.
Her story is repeated many times at the crowded hospital. Many of the women here have even completed their treatment but opt to remain in the hospital because they have nowhere to go.
“We cannot turn them away,” says Dr. Christophe Kimono, a hospital surgeon. “We know in most cases they will have nowhere to go, so we let them stay here, learning life skills that will help them earn a decent wage.”
In another room, sewing machines rattle endlessly as women hum gospel songs in Lingala, a language spoken by millions in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Their songs talk of a better place far away from here, where they will finally rest. Handmade handbags, toys, necklaces, belts and many other little items that the women have made hang on the walls. Many say learning life skills is a form of therapy.
“When I came here, I felt like it was the end of the road for me,” says Sofia Bakalo, 54, a rape survivor. “Having left my children alone in the jungle in the hands of cruel relatives, I had no other skill apart from tilling farms, but now I can bake, sew and even carve.”
Outside, a group of women in red tracksuits kick a soccer ball, as others watch from the sidelines, cheering and breaking into song and dance. Many of the rape survivors here decided to form the Goma Lady Lions, a soccer group. Apart from helping them to keep fit, they say the game helps them to learn self-defense skills and to stay mentally well by sharing their stories with each other.
“It would have been difficult for us to continue without each other,” says Annette Mara, a teenage mother. “A game a day makes us know we are not alone in this.”
In December 2010, women from across Africa held demonstrations in Goma to protest the mass rapes. They presented a petition to the U.N. and the Democratic Republic of Congo authorities. They say they are hopeful that the government will take action and perpetrators will be put behind bars.
Until then, the tribulations of women like Mawazo continue. But they aren’t giving up. With the help of crutches, Mawazo limps across the compound, saying she is grateful for a second chance.
