Eastern DRC rape victims recount ordeal

By Joe Ombuor

The five-year conflict in eastern DRC pitting government forces against rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda has aggravated one of the worst humanitarian crises in the continent.

But nothing is more telling of the devastating effects of the war than the horrendous tales of rape and torture residents of the area, particularly women, have been subjected to.

In my recent trip to Congo, I came face to face with the "hell on earth" that is eastern DRC.

Here, men armed with rifles yanking babies from their mothers’ backs and hurling them to the ground for a date with death, then heehawing with laugher before they pounce on the grieving mothers to subject them to the most dehumanising sexual acts.

And that is not even half the story. The marauding militia, many of who were in neighbouring Rwanda during that country’s 1994 genocide, force fathers to bludgeon their own children to death at gunpoint as the innocent creatures cry out for mercy. Babies are pounded in mortars like cassava, as their parents watch in horror.

Butamba Kenga, 60, was the first to narrate the torment residents of the area have had to endure as the war rages.

"What did we do to God to deserve all this? To vent his wrath in Nyiragongo? What did we do?" Kenga posed tearfully.

"Those who are lucky are ordered to chop off the ear lobes of their spouses and munch them before their wives are subjected to rape ordeals. Often, husbands are sodomised, badly beaten or killed. Screaming children are shot at point blank range," says Kenga with a far look in his eyes.

I came face to face with rape victims at the HEAL Africa hospital in Goma where scores of women are recovering after surgery to correct awful deformities in the wake of horrific gang rapes. HEAL is acronym for Health, Education, Action Leadership, the four tenets on which the hospital is founded.

Jessica Kulimbogo, 30, a victim of the violence hospitalised at the facility, insisted that I put away my camera before she could open up to me on her ordeal that has confined her to a hospital bed for months.

"Do not take my photograph," she pleaded.

Kulimbogo said she, together with her husband and their five children aged between six and 13 were at their home in Rutshuru close to the border with Rwanda when the attackers, whom she described as Tutsi’s, struck.

"They were three in number, clad in FDLR uniforms. With a gun planted on my husband’s chest, they asked for money, preferably in dollars, and did not hesitate to pump bullets into his heart when he produced a 1,000 Congolese Francs (slightly over one US dollar), which was all the money we had in the house."

And she continued: "Cries from me and the frightened children only heightened their anger and they mowed down the children before turning to me.

When they were done with me, one of them shoved the muzzle of his gun into me, ripping my inside."

Kulimbogo was brought to the hospital by neighbours after the burial of her children and husband. She has so far had two surgeries in six months, but still cannot stand on her own or even walk.

She said she had almost lost hope of ever getting better and wished the criminal gang had killed her alongside other members of her family.

A few steps away from Kulimbogo’s bed lay 37-year-old Lucia Dulungwa who after securing my assurance that I would not photograph her, said she was raped by six men in turns as her husband watched at gun point.

Almost a month after the ordeal, Dulungwa still lies with a colostomy bag placed next to her, evidence of the severe internal damage she suffered.

"My husband and I were dragged to the bush. The men held a rifle to his neck and made him watch as they gang raped me with threats that they would shoot him if he dared look away or close his eyes," Dulungwa said.

They still shot him anyway when they were finished.

"Then they brought stones and pushed them into me as I screamed until I fainted.

Oh, how I wish that I were dead! I am in terrible pain and I do not know when this suffering will end. My children are languishing at home with no reliable person to take care of them," recounted the frail looking Dulungwa.

Luwendo Mawazo, a 50-year-old mother of 10 from Masisi North West of Goma, did not mind photographs "if that will help bring the world to my assistance".