Mission to Mwenga: Day 5

27 novembre 2009

This afternoon Dr Tarsis and I visited some displaced families who are staying in houses within the town of Kitutu. They each had similar stories to tell. Their village had been attacked at night by armed men, everything stolen, sometimes their houses had been burnt.

None of them had time to take anything with them, they just had time to flee. One man showed me the knife wounds on his face and arms where he had been attacked by one of the armed men.

Some of the families have been displaced several times in different villages before arriving to Kitutu. In one house, we found five families living together under the same roof, in a mud house that would normally sleep only five people. In these conditions, and with such limited access to clean water in Kitutu, it won’t take long for communicable diseases like diarrhoea to spread.

One of the big problems related to the recent insecurity is that people are finding it hard to cultivate their land, as it is too dangerous to go to their fields, even in the daytime. Just yesterday, a woman visiting her fields 5 km from Kitutu was raped by armed men.

This was the second time that this woman had been a victim of rape. After the first time, her husband threw her out of their home.

Sadly that is a common practice here in Congo. It just makes it even harder for the woman to come forward for assistance if she knows she will be ostracized by her community and even her family.

Without access to their fields, the people here lose their main livelihood. How can a family who has lost their means of trading on the market gather the money to pay for a medical consultation when their child is sick?

Tags: Déplacements, Kivu