A Woman’s Story

November 24th, 2009

MSF runs a mental health programme in Kitchanga. Many of the people they see are women who have suffered physical or sexual violence. This woman, 54, recounts what happened to her a week before first coming to see MSF:

“I was out with a group looking for food, when we heard gunshots coming from all sides. We ran, and dispersed into the woods. I was with two young people and they were killed right there in front of me.

“As I threw myself to the ground they were killing the people behind me. They kept chasing, firing their guns. I fell to the ground, and when they caught me, they raped me.

“When they had finished, one of them made to shoot me, but the others stopped him, and cut me with knives instead. Now I have cuts all over me, even on my legs. When they had finished, they were about to kill me, but one of them said not to.

“When armed groups started coming to our village, we would spend the night in the bush. They always came at night, and they would beat everyone. My husband was badly beaten, and some people even died from beatings.

“When we saw that they were coming every day, we left our houses, and we were like animals living in the bush.

“When they saw that we weren’t sleeping in the village any more, they started to hunt us down in the bush. If you had nothing to give to the bandits, you’d be killed. Every day people would talk about someone they knew being beaten or stabbed to death.

“The bandits said that the forest belonged to them, not us. They told us that the night belonged to them, too. So we gathered all our possessions and came here to the camp.

“Since then, I’ve been living here in the camp. My heart is always beating too fast. I’m terrified whenever I go to collect food – how could they do this to me?

“There are so many people here getting wounded that I’m still frightened they might kill me. The day before yesterday some women went to dig for roots in their fields. They were chased away with bullets and the bandits took everything they had gathered. No one now dares to return home.

“I have given birth twelve times. Eight of these children are already buried.

“I spend sleepless nights and then I’m tired in the mornings. I think about many things. I think about the people I’ve lost and those who are still around. I think about my children who have died. I think about my child, who is still missing, and I don’t know whether he’s alive or dead.

“Whenever I’m with my friends I end up talking about the rape, about what happened to me. They help me, giving me food sometimes, and if they can’t give me anything, it’s because they don’t have anything themselves.

“Some of my friends have given me cups to drink from, food to eat, or a wrap to wear. And one woman who suffered the same things I did told me to come to see MSF. As soon as she told me about MSF, I came straight here.”