The DRC is one of the five poorest countries in the world, according to the World Bank.
And yet, it is overflowing with mineral wealth, particularly in the east of the country, in the North Kivu region.
But what should benefit the population has in fact become a curse.
Between its geographical location, close to the borders of Uganda, Burundi and especially Rwanda, the region saw former genocidaires take refuge on its territory in 1994. Fluctuating alliances, the implications of neighboring countries and their armies, served as breeding ground for a conflict which has never really calmed down since and has even flared up again.
In all, six million people died in this conflict, one of the deadliest in the world since the Second World War.
It also holds the sad record for the number of refugees: 7 million people, according to the UN.
In this protean war, civilian victims are numerous, and among them, women in particular.
Raped, tortured, forcibly “recruited” by armed groups who make them sexual slaves, martyred… tens of thousands of them have experienced the horror.
Added to the trauma of the attack is social ostracization, rejection and abandonment by their husbands.
Some find themselves contaminated by HIV, which is exploding in the region, others pregnant by their attackers and with few possibilities of having an abortion.
Although the law officially authorizes abortion in certain cases, it is not actually practiced in practice.
As for justice, it is failing to say the least.
In this region far from the capital, the courts are not numerous and lack everything.
To the point that Justine Masika Bihamba tells this anecdote: to file a complaint, you have to buy the ream of paper.
The law itself is very lax on the issue of rape, at least until the 2006 law, drafted and brought to the Congolese Parliament by activists from Synergie des femmes for victims of sexual violence.
Since then, rape is punishable by 5 to 20 years in prison.
But in reality, convictions are rare and their execution even more so.
In her book "Woman standing in the face of war" (Editions de l'Aube), Justine Masika Bihamba recalls that the warlord Bosco Ntaganda, tried by the Court of The Hague in 2019 and sentenced to 30 years in prison for crimes of war and crimes against humanity (including murder, attacks on civilians, rape, sexual slavery and use of child soldiers) had been promoted to general in 2007, that is to say a year after the publication of the arrest warrant of the ICC against him...
The France 24 summary of the week
invites you to look back at the news that marked the week
I subscribe
Take international news everywhere with you!
Download the France 24 application