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In the lush landscape of the Democratic Republic of Congo, civilians devastated by Africa's "first world war" are struggling to rebuild their lives, their dignity, their hope. The Congo's women are leading the way.
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Congolese women in a gender-awareness
session.
© Sylvia Plachy |
At moments, the sheer beauty of the Democratic Republic of Congo makes it almost possible to forget the magnitude of tragedy that occurred here. From 1996 to 2002, killing, rape and preventable disease left millions of people dead and virtually every survivor scarred. Congo is a land of dazzling colors and vibrant music, of misted volcanoes and lakes so still you can sometimes hear the fall of a fisherman's net. Seemingly unlimited resources—timber, gold, copper and wild rubber—have enriched kings and industrialists. Yet today Congo is one of the poorest countries in the world.
The people of this gorgeous land have endured enormous cruelty. In 1994 more than 1 million refugees from Rwanda flooded across the border to Congo, including thousands of Hutu soldiers and militia members, perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide. A complex web of conflict, referred to as the First Congo War, ensued in late 1996. Two years later, Africa’s “first world war” began; it lasted more than four years and involved eight African nations. Rwanda’s occupation of much of eastern Congo spawned local Mayi Mayi resistance groups. All of these armed groups preyed on civilians.
Modern Africa has known no deadlier war. An estimated 3.3 million people died between August 1998 and November 2002, mostly from disease and malnutrition— the highest civilian death toll since World War II. Fighting has continued since the 2002 cease fire, and, by mid-2006, the estimated death toll had reached 4 million. During the conflict, virtually all armies systematically used rape and sexual torture to tear apart families, destroy communities and secure their hold on territories. With no threat of punishment, they publicly humiliated groups of women. Documented rape victims included babies as young as 4 months and women as old as 84 years.
Today countless survivors bear visible physical scars of rape, torture and mutilation, as well as untreated HIV/AIDS. Millions more carry profound psychological wounds caused by trauma and humiliation.
Rejection by husbands and sometimes by their communities— has been one of the most diffcult problems for women to bear. In the past, rape was considered a crime of honor against the husband, and some husbands fled in shame over their inability to protect their women. Many women have been held responsible for their rape. Ostracized from their communities, they start their lives over in unfamiliar places, sometimes giving birth to babies who are cast out themselves because they bear the faces of attacking ethnic groups.
Amid such suffering, women in some areas are emptying their hearts of their ordeals and seeking new solutions. With the support of international organizations, local women’s groups have started mediation programs and public awareness campaigns urging communities to embrace, rather than shun, rape survivors. Elderly women are performing traditional rites to “purify” rape victims to help family members accept them. “Listening centers” allow women to meet others who have endured similar traumas.
Women’s organizations are also fanning out into the countryside to educate
women—and occasionally their husbands— about women’s rights.
Demanding a greater role in navigating the transition from war to peace, women
parliamentarians have united behind a simple slogan: “Parliament, the
bedrock of democracy; women, the pillar of the nation.” 
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© Sylvia Plachy
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Honorata was the director of a school for girls and ran a small business to earn extra money to support her five children. She and 11 other women were caught in shooting between rival militias. The men surrounded the women, beat them and gang-raped Honorata. The women were then forced to serve as sex slaves for one year. They made their escape during the chaos of an attack and walked for two months, sleeping outside, eating almost nothing. Honorata was reunited with her children, and they moved in with a friend. One year later, insurgents attacked, and her pregnant daughter was raped. She now is speaking out, calling for accountability for the suffering of Congolese women at an International Women's Day rally.
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© Sylvia Plachy
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Jeannette's normal life ended in a second. When Rwandan militants attacked, she, her husband and her child fled. Jeannette fell while running with her baby, and the soldiers beat her with machetes. Next they raped her. Then they spread out her arms-and hacked off her hands. She awoke in the hospital separated from her child. She presumed her husband would abandon her because she had been raped. But he said "his heart would not let him do so." He does everything for her: feeds her, washes her, dresses her. Following the establishment of a transitional government, Jeannette found the courage to speak out at an International Women's Day gathering, at which members of the warring parties were present. Afterward, she could not return home for months because authorities were searching for her. One woman speaker was killed. Today Jeannette is learning new skills and is hopeful her children will grow up to live a normal life. She says, "For the future, I hope for peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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© Sylvia Plachy
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When the Interahamwe rebels attacked Claire (right) in 1999, they did "the most unimaginable things to me and stripped me of any sense of human dignity and self-worth." They also stole all she and her husband possessed and forced him to carry the goods like a beast of burden. She was left behind, injured and traumatized, with six children. She fled to safety, but as one of thousands of internally displaced people, she could not find work. Then, she, too, began carrying 100-pound loads on her back just to earn a meager living. Ultimately she began classes to obtain a job that demanded less heavy labor. She hopes to follow her girlhood dream-becoming a lawyer.
AI’s Concern for the Women and Girls of the Congo
During the decade of conflict, warring parties conscripted girls under age 18 to serve as porters, domestics or sexual servants to male soldiers. Girls comprised an estimated 40 percent of children associated with the armed forces and groups in the region. Despite a two-year countrywide child demobilization and reintegration program, some 11,000 children—most of whom are young girls—remain with armed groups or are unaccounted for, according to an October AI report.
International organizations and national child protection groups have been filling an enormous void by providing the majority of educational, vocational and reintegration activities in the region—and they need resources to continue these programs. But the government must fulfill its own obligation to assist survivors of sexual violence with rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
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© Sylvia Plachy
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Congolese women traditionally perform 80 percent of the nation's agricultural labor. During the war, however, women were prevented from growing food for fear of attack by roving militia, and severe malnutrition spread through eastern regions once known as the country's breadbasket. Now, women are returning to work in the fields and marketplaces, rebuilding the economy literally from the ground up. Cecile sells mangoes to help send her daughter to school.
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