In the era of the COVID-19 pandemic in which the world’s economic and health systems are compressed and try to deal with dramatic consequences for the populations, there are countries and entire continents that, in addition to the risk of contagion, are living with wars, internal conflicts, natural disasters and more generally with humanitarian emergencies. This is the case of Africa, and of the Democratic Republic of the Congo specifically.
The colonial past of the Democratic Republic of Congo is still strongly present in the country’s economic, political and social system. Although many years have passed since the declaration of independence in 1960, the exploitation of mineral raw materials almost entirely destined for export persists. One of the basic problems of the country is the lack of liquidity, which results in deep economic difficulties for a population with one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world.
This precarious economic situation is further aggravated by the continuous internal conflicts, violence, and kidnappings in various areas of the country. The latest attacks from rival armed groups, occurred in September and early October, especially in the North Kivu and Ituri regions, in the northeast of the country. More than 50,000 people fled as a result of the fighting. They are displaced in their own country: women, men, and many children, including many unaccompanied.
According to OCHA, there are currently 1,800,513 displaced people in the North Kivu region. South Kivu, on the other hand, already registered 177,765 people in the first quarter of 2020 without a home and constantly fleeing their villages. Even in the province of Ituri, the numbers continue to grow, reaching the figure of 1,603,343 internally displaced persons. These are territories where hostilities have never subsided, where the population lives the constant risk of insecurity and poverty. The latest data dating back to 2019 show unimaginable figures; 12.8 million people are in a state of humanitarian need, 1.3 million children under five suffer from acute or severe malnutrition.
Protecting these people in a similar context is an increasingly complex and dangerous undertaking. Cases of violence and crimes, kidnappings, murders, attacks on villages, mass rape, and the recruitment of children for armed groups. These abuses create population movements, a mass of people who move without a precise destination, without ever being able to go back. In these areas, INTERSOS plays a crucial role in monitoring cases of violence or helping people who fled their homes after attacks in their villages. When we talk about the violence we mean not only a physical but also a psychological violation. Women who have suffered abuse or rape, minors recruited as fighters, various types of aggression, and continuous escape from danger. Each of these violations leads to unobjectionable trauma.
Each territory has its own history and its daily chronicle of internal instability; in Kabambare, in the east of the country, armed groups control entire localities, forcing people to pay taxes and contributions. The province of Ituri is facing a complex humanitarian crisis linked to the persistent conflict between national and foreign armed groups. The humanitarian situation in the Djugu region is also serious, often forcing humanitarian actors to suspend their activities due to the surrounding danger and the gradual deterioration of the security system. The same words could be used to describe the context in which the people of North Kivu and South Kivu live. Throughout the east and northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo, militiamen continue to carry out attacks and violations of rights against civilians.
INTERSOS staff is involved in identifying the needs of these people, ranging from emergency shelters for thousands of displaced people to food and money, even more, urgent for people on the move who cannot benefit from the products grown in the fields of their villages from which they have fled. Women and children suffer the worst consequences, physical violence, most of the time sexual. INTERSOS recorded frightening numbers: from January to September 2020, 716 episodes of gender-based violence were documented in the province of Ituri. In South Kivu, in September 2020, the number of registered cases is 920, of which 475 are cases of rape. For North Kivu, there were 957 cases of gender-based violence and 667 of rape as of 30 September 2020.
These data show that sexual violence in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo is on the rise, especially cases of rape. Despite the global health emergency linked to the spread of COVID-19, this type of violation of human dignity continues to grow and occur more and more frequently.