Rape survivor Angeline Mwarusena lives in Bukavu, eastern DR Congo. She is one of the 2.2 million people have been affected by the fighting in the country which started in early 2012. Credit: Einberger/argum/EED/IPS

By Passy Mubalama
GOMA, DR Congo, Mar 12 2013 (IPS)

A street in Goma’s city centre, the capital of North Kivu in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, has been nicknamed “the ward of death” because of the brutal crimes that frequently occur there.

“You will find every kind of person in this part, gays, lesbians, and unfortunately there are brothels where adults are sexually exploiting underage girls,” Major David Bodeli Dombi, the commander of the special police force for the protection of women and children in North Kivu, told IPS.

Over the last two years, an increasing number of brothels have opened in Goma where under-age girls are being sexually exploited and the illegal trade is on the rise.

“These brothels take in many minors, most of whom come from poor and destitute families in North Kivu,” Faustin Wasolela, the head of the child protection programme at the local non-governmental organisation Development Action for the Protection of Women and Children (AIDPROFEN), which helps young victims of sexual exploitation, told IPS.

The region has been in upheaval since April 2012, as fighting between government forces and rebel groups in North Kivu has displaced some 2.2 million people, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency.

M23 rebels near Sake, Eastern DR Congo. The rebel group withdrew from Goma on Saturday, Dec. 1. Almost 2.2 million people have been affected by the fighting in the country which started in early 2012. Credit: William Lloyd-George/IPS

Other brothels have opened up in several other wards in Goma.

“Nowadays, you will find dozens of these brothels in every ward,” Victorine Muhima, the Kasiska ward chief in Karisimbi municipality, told IPS. Like Wasolela, she also said that harsh living conditions, poverty and incessant conflict were driving the trend.

Sixteen-year-old Masika* works at the Memoire ya Nzambe, a small bar with an area of only four square metres. It is also a brothel. “I work as a waitress during the day and as a prostitute during the night to feed myself and my two-year-old daughter. I don’t know who the father of my child is,” she told IPS.

As a waitress during the day she earns 20 dollars a month. But at night she earns five dollars per client.

“I have been working here since 2010. I come from Béni, where my family lives. My parents are poor and couldn’t send me to school. We could barely get enough to eat. So I decided to come to Goma to earn some money,” Masika said.

The Memoire ya Nzambe bar sells spirits, beer and even marijuana. Rooms for clients are located in the backrooms of the bar. “You can get a girl for one or two dollars,” Emmanuel Bisimwa, a 20-year-old regular, told IPS.

However, bar owners deny sexually exploiting children. “I have five employees, but they are all men. I have no young girls working for me,” Riziki Mufiritsa, the owner of Memoire ya Nzambe, told IPS. But his claim could not be verified.

Like Masika, many other young girls between 13 and 17 are being exploited by older men, and women, in order to make easy money.

The young girls say they have no alternatives to sex work. “I don’t have a choice, I have to buy my own underwear, lotion and even sanitary towels, but there is no other work around,” said 15-year-old Rachel*.

It is a common reason that Idelphonse Birhaheka of the United Nations Children’s Fund in Goma, hears often. “Some girls tell us that they resort to sex work to pay for basics like soap, lotion, or sanitary pads,” she told IPS.

“The armed conflict in eastern DRC has impoverished many families making them unable to care for their children,” Birhaheka added.

Dechine Birindwa is one of those fathers who is finding it difficult to support his family.

“Life has become very difficult. It’s hard to afford food, never mind buy clothes and shoes for my daughters. It’s very tough and they have to fend for themselves,” he told IPS.

Though the special force for the protection of women and children has launched an investigation into the increased sexual exploitation of girls, Dombi said that it was no easy task. “It is difficult to find these brothels, but once we do so, we bring in the owners for questioning and close some brothels after our investigation,” he told IPS.

According to Dombi, the police investigated eight brothel owners in 2012, and closed down five establishments.

“We need cooperation from everyone, from the police who need to put in place deterrents, but also churches, schools, parents and even the media to fight this trend,” Wasolela said.

*Names have been withheld to protect the identity of minors.

Refugees who early arrived in the morning from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu region, crossing the border to the Nyakabande Transit Centre in search of a better life. Credit: Bastian Schnabel/IPS

By Bastian Schnabel
NYAKABANDE, Uganda, Mar 7 2013 (IPS)

As dawn rises over Nyakabande, a village in southwestern Uganda, people line up in front of a reception tent, exhausted and carrying only the few belongings they could bring across the border.

Most of them have walked for days after fleeing the various rebel groups operating in Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu region, crossing the border to the Nyakabande Transit Centre in search of a better life – one without war.

“The conflict in eastern DRC will never end. We’re looking for a better future here in Uganda,” Ndagigimana Ndayambaje told IPS after he, his wife, and their two children just arrived at the centre in this East African nation.

It is not an easy journey for most. According to Dr. Bruce Murray of Medical Teams International (MTI), a Christian global health organisation based at the Nyakabande Transit Centre, women who arrive here “suffer mostly from sexual violence and rape.”

“Children suffer mostly from malnutrition, respiratory and diarrhoeal diseases. The rate of children infected with chicken pox is very high,” he told IPS.

Since April 2012, fighting in the DRC’s North Kivu province has displaced some 2.2 million people in the country and caused almost 70,000 to flee to neighbouring Uganda and Rwanda, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

On Tuesday, Mar. 4, the UNHCR appealed for almost 70 million dollars in donations to help these Congolese citizens who have been displaced by fighting between government forces and various rebel groups, but predominantly the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the March 23 Movement (M23) and the Mai-Mai.

During December 2012 and February 2013, the number of new arrivals was quite stable at the camp, with on average of 50 to 100 people arriving per day. But on Mar. 1, between 1 am and 5 am internal fighting within the M23 rebel group resulted in another influx of refugees. The first of about 4,000 refugees arrived at 2 am, crossing over from the nearby border post in Bunagana. The UNHCR, Ugandan Red Cross and MTI struggled to provide assistance to such a large number.

Here, fighting takes place mostly during the night, and refugees arrive at the Nyakabande camp in the morning after crossing the Bunagana border post.

A border officer, who referred to himself only as Mr. Patrick, told IPS: “People are free to cross the border from both sides during the day.”

When Patrick was asked if the police performed security checks on the arrivals, and if officials feared the smuggling of minerals and weapons, he answered in the negative.

Patrick said that occasionally M23 rebels crossed the border into Uganda – unarmed and in civilian dress – to go shopping or to visit relatives.

According to a U.N. interim report from the Group of Experts on the DRC, released in June 2012, this leaves open the question to what extent the Ugandan government is involved in activities beyond their border lines.

Recovering in Uganda

At the transit centre, the asylum seekers are registered with the Ugandan Red Cross and the UNHCR. Afterwards, they gain official refugee status and can claim the same services that are available for nationals, including free health services and a work permit.

“The M23 rebels came every day and requested food and money, threatening to kill us if we didn’t give them what they wanted. But here, in Uganda, I can even get my own plot of land to farm,” David Byirangiro, a refugee from eastern DRC, told IPS.

Meanwhile, the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) is struggling to keep up with food supplies, as the conflict in North Kivu appears to continue unabated.

A spokesperson for WFP Uganda, Lydia Wamala, told IPS: “Even though we have had some contributions from the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom this year, WFP still has a funding shortfall for refugees in Uganda. Most of the world’s attention is on Mali, Syria and others, but we need the world to know that political instability continues also in DRC.”

The organisation has already started to cut food supplies down by up to 50 percent within the refugee settlements. If the numbers of asylum seekers keep rising, the situation could worsen.

And there is no indication that it will end soon. On Saturday, Feb. 23, one day before the official signing of the peace agreement in Addis Ababa, there were reports of renewed fighting in North Kivu.

On Feb. 24, leaders of 11 African nations and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to bring an end to the war in eastern DRC. The delegation also discussed the deployment of an intervention force under U.N. command. However, the major stakeholders in this conflict – the rebel groups, particularly the FDLR and M23 – were not invited to the peace talks.

And the talks do not offer those caught in the conflict much hope.

“The peace talks are completely useless. We’re fed up with this conflict which never seems to come to an end,” refugee Florence Mahirwe told IPS.

She is not hopeful that the conflict in her country will end soon, but she hopes to find peace in Uganda. “I’m not planning to go back to DRC. I’m desperate for peace, security and stability.”