DRC: in Lubumbashi, residents resign themselves to moving, weary of insecurity
An NGO denounces cases of rape at Kasapa prison in Lubumbashi (illustrative image).
FEDERICO SCOPPA / AFP
Text by: Sonia Rolley Follow
3 min
As the political and economic crisis persists in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the country's main cities, insecurity is growing.
In Lubumbashi, the mining town, streets or even entire neighborhoods are subjected to repeated attacks by organized gangs.
Attacks with knives or with weapons of war which poison the lives of the inhabitants.
Example in the Bel Air district, where many residents have chosen to move.
Others organize themselves to watch the streets all night.
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From our special correspondent in Lubimbashi,
Lito - a pseudonym - was born and lived all his life in Bel Air, a district of Lubumbashi that he preferred to leave last August after yet
another attack
.
He's coming back for the first time.
“
Many have moved.
They were forced into it.
People want money, phones.
An accountant was killed.
We started to be afraid to stay in the neighborhood.
"
Arrived in front of the house he occupied, Lito greets the neighbors.
For them, there is no doubt: members of the security forces are among the perpetrators of violence.
“
Those who secure the population, they are the ones who kill.
You see people with automatic weapons.
Thirty, forty in a plot.
It does not go!
One of them exclaims.
► To read also: DRC: what about insecurity in Lubumbashi?
After spending months on the lookout all night long with the men from the neighborhood, armed with simple slingshots and whistles, Lito too broke down and moved out.
And a few hours ago, a few kilometers from the Bel Air district, he was the victim of the same type of attack.
“
I only lived in the new house for two weeks before I was attacked again.
They didn't attack me, but the whole neighborhood.
It is total insecurity.
[...] We think that it is an insecurity authorized by the chiefs.
"
Despite this new attack and the fact that he finds himself a tenant in his new neighborhood, Lito does not yet consider returning to Bel Air.
He gives himself a year to observe.
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