Armed Conflict, Sexual Violence, Torched Homes and extrajudicial killings trigger more than 14,000 refugees to flee DRC in six weeks, says CARE International
More
than 14,000 refugees, the large majority women and children, have fled the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to Uganda since December 18th
2017, following increased conflict, according to figures from Government of
Uganda and UNHCR, said agency CARE International.
Most
refugees arrive through the Bunagana border point in Kisoro district, South
Western Uganda but some even brave the dangerous waters of Lake Albert to
escape the even greater dangers in DRC. The majority of refugees are children
(54%).
CARE
International staff who conducted a rapid assessment last week explain that
while initially more women sought refuge in Uganda, more men have started to
arrive in the last week. Many men are still trapped in the DRC, and droves have
been executed by the armed gangs for trying to leave the country.
Delphine Pinault, CARE Uganda Country Director, said: “The use of sexual
violence against women and girls in DRC must stop. The world cannot stand and
continue to watch and accept what is happening. Women, girls and civilians are
hunted down by out of control armed groups, forced to abandon their loved ones
behind when they cannot flee fast enough, devastated by physical and emotional
pain due to assault, rape, loss of friends and families. I have been working
for the protection of women and girls in DRC for two decades now. It is
high time we all come together to denounce the massive abuses and demand
protection of DRC’s citizens and women and girls in particular.”
An
official at the Nyakabande Transit Center in Kisoro District reported that nine
out of every 10 women were raped, sometimes more than once and sometimes by
gangs, inside Congo but also as they fled to Uganda. “All these women who make
it here were victims of rape and other forms of gender based violence. 99% of
the pregnant women in this camp will not be able to single out the fathers of
their babies, because they have been raped by so many men.”
CARE
has also found that:
- Refugees have reported being forced to pay armed groups to cross the border into Uganda
- Some refugees have been executed for attempting to leave DRC
- Refugees have reported that the current situation in DRC includes armed groups burning down and pillaging villages, torching houses, shutting down schools, hospitals and churches, forcefully recruiting young men, abducting and kidnapping innocent citizens, raping women and girls
- Many families have become separated during the journey to Uganda, due to the difficulty of staying together while being pursued by armed groups
- Refugees have often had to leave behind disabled and elderly family members and children who were unable to run away from armed groups.
“The
sight of my husband being killed is still fresh in my mind. They tied his hands
in his back and shot him in the head” says Evelyn. “That same day, I started
planning my escape from our village. I was so scared because many people
had been killed by the armed groups while trying to flee”.
Fleeing
DRC means undertaking an extremely dangerous journey. Like many refugees around
the world, people are left with an impossible decision: stay and probably be
killed, or risk their lives on the arduous journey.
“I
had to flee mainly during the night and try to avoid any contact with any
militia and government soldiers”, Evelyn continues. She was lucky to reach the
shores of Lake Albert, which borders Uganda. But she had to pay 60,000 Uganda
shillings to be smuggled across the lake into the neighboring country.
“Life
has been extremely hard for us. Sometimes I ask myself why we had to go through
these killings. We are lucky to be here but we all have families and friends
still stuck in DRC”.
Testimony: Thomas, Nyakabande Transit Center
Thomas
is a refugee from Rutshuru town in North Kivu province, DRC, and has been
resettled in Uganda. He is still finding his feet in the new settlement together
with his wife and one son. Thomas and his family have been allocated a piece of
land and materials to build a temporary shelter.
“I
arrived two weeks ago and was taken to the transit center. I have been
resettled but I am still so sad…. I have seen so much pain and suffering and I
never want to return,” Thomas explained. I had four children, Only one
made it with my wife and I across Uganda.
“My
three other children did not make it across. We ran and they got lost and I
assume they are dead,” he added. “They were 4, 6 and 9.”
Stories
of separated families like this are common in the settlements.
“All
the women you see here were raped on the way here and if they resisted they
were executed”, Thomas said.
“Some
refugees have managed to be reunited with family members who were separated,”
he added.
“I
hope someday that I would be reunited with my children. If not all three, at
least one. However, I know this is unlikely to happen. I am sad that I cannot
even bury them if they are dead”, he said.
With
limited agencies and organizations responding to this refugee crisis,
facilities are stretched, transit centers overcrowded, and sanitation poor.
Notes
- Uganda has a population of nearly 1,4 million refugees, of whom 1 million are from South Sudan and nearly 250,000 from DRC.
- Most of the displacement from DRC is from communities in Rutshuru, Masisi, Goma, Beni and Uvira districts
- The districts of Kanungu, Kisoro and Bundibugyo in Western Uganda have experienced a massive upsurge of refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo fleeing violence
- Currently refugees are taken to Kyaka II settlement in Kyegegwa District and to Kyangwali settlement in Hoima district. Kyaka II is an 81 square kilometers, divided in 9 zones and has 26 administrative units also known as “villages”.
- Before the most recent influx that started on 18th December 2017, there were 26,000 resettled Congolese in Kyaka. At the end of January, the settlement has already reached 30,717 refugees. An Office of the Prime Minister official managing the settlement said “Based on the trend we are seeing, we are planning to ensure that we can accommodate up to 100,000 refugees.”
- In Uganda, it is the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) that is in charge of managing disasters, including refugees, with support from UNHCR. After the transit center, refugees are sent in convoys to settlements’ reception centers where they are registered, given hot meals, and undergo medical screenings.
- Based on Uganda’s refugee policy, refugees are then allocated plots of lands and materials to construct a temporary shelter as they settle. They are then further allocated agricultural land to enable them to cultivate.
- But for many refugees, their trauma is often too big to think of rebuilding their lives in Uganda. The CARE team found that trauma levels are very high and that there is urgent need for counseling services to reach the refugees, particularly the many victims of sexual violence and rape.
For more information or to talk to a spokesperson from CARE please
contact Edward Ahonobadha on edward.ahonobadha@care.org or +254 724044770
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