In South Kivu, SOS Secours, the app that helps women raise the alarm in the event of sexual violence

Women at the Panzi hospital in Bukavu, in the province of South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, on October 6, 2018. AFP - ALAIN WANDIMOYI

Text by: Coralie Pierret

3 mins

Fighting against rape using technology is now possible in South Kivu in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

In this province, violence against women is still very present, committed by civilians but also by combatants from the many militias and armed groups that operate in the area. 

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From our correspondent

,

Two of them had the idea of ​​developing

: a journalist, Amisi Musada, and a computer scientist, Didier Bacigale.

It was four years ago.

The neighbor of Didier Bacigale, victim of recurrent domestic violence, was not helped by anyone.

Neither the police nor his relatives came to his aid.

Didier, a student at the time, started coding this application, which is now accessible to everyone.

The objective of the SOS Secours application is to prevent cases of domestic violence, but also cases of rape or more broadly gender-based violence.

The principle is simple: the user (the application is mainly aimed at women, but of course, men can also register) opens her application when she feels in danger, when she leaves her home at night for example.

►Also listen: 

at Panzi Hospital in Bukavu: 

and 

Shake your phone five times

In the event of an attack, the person shakes their phone five times.

Immediately an alert and a geolocation are sent by message to his relatives.

The alert is also sent to a network of local partner associations of SOS Secours.

For the designers of the app, it's all about keeping things low-key.

In South Kivu (the region where Sos Secours operates) but more broadly in eastern DRC, victims of violence rarely report their attacker to police stations.

First, because rapes are sometimes committed by veterans or soldiers.

In the province of North Kivu, 43% of rapists are former combatants according to a 2020 study by the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies.

Then, because going to court can be a traumatic experience as the judicial system is failing in this area in the DRC.

Victims point to the corruption of certain magistrates or arrangements to avoid prison for the aggressor.

So by circumventing justice and the security services and discreetly notifying relatives and local associations, the application allows victims to avoid this obstacle course and at the same time allows them to be rescued, to denounce and to be taken care of in the event of an attack.

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Rape, a weapon of war

In this region, sexual violence has been endemic since the country's two wars between 1996 and 2003. Rape was used against women and young girls.

And sexual violence today has not disappeared.

In 2020 alone, the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) received nearly 11,000 victims of sexual violence in these centers.

A figure that remains below the reality according to the NGO.

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