Men, women and children are being kidnapped and held
for months as slaves by militias in eastern Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Healthcare professionals working for Médicins sans Frontières in the
gold and diamond mining regions of Okapi forest, Orientale province, say they
have treated hundreds of women who had been seized from villages and held as
sex slaves, many of whom have life-threatening injuries from sustained abuse.
Men and children are also being kidnapped and made to work in the mines.
"They describe what they have lived through as
hell," said Ana Maria Tijerino, an MSF psychologist who works in the
nearby town of Nia Nia, to which thousands of people have fled to escape the
violence.
"I have trouble believing that such a level of horror is
possible. Victims have been held as sex slaves – sometimes for months at a time
– and sexually assaulted violently by several men, several times a day, often
in front of their parents, husbands or relatives."
Between May and early July, MSF staff in Nia Nia
provided 3,586 consultations to local people. They also gave psychological
support to 143 women, three men and two children who had experienced sexual
violence, and to more than 36 survivors of other types of violence, including
torture and being forced to witness atrocities against relatives.
Last month,
the team treated 20 women in a single village who had been raped.
MSF says security and the rule of law have collapsed
in recent months and that the military are struggling to overcome militiamen,
many of whom are former poachers with detailed knowledge of Okapi's dense
forested areas.
"After a militia leader was killed by the
military in April, the level of violence, and the brutality, increased
significantly, targeting both the mining communities and people in the
surrounding villages," Kevin Coppock, MSF's head of mission in Orientale
province, said.
"Militia members simply show up, steal what they can and
take men and women out of local communities who are then kept captive under the
most horrendous conditions for months at a time."
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