Danger Grows in the Congo:
Niyansaba's Story
The
Democratic Republic of Congo borders both Sudan and Rwanda.
The women and children of Congo suffer the same sexual slavery,
rape, and oppression as their Sudanese counterparts. The Congo
has long been on my heart as the next place Make Way Partners
needs to go, expanding our orphan-care network. We have been
praying for God’s timing and direction for the right indigenous
leadership.
Last
February, I was sent home early from Africa after I contracted
Malaria and pneumonia. So, I did not get to visit the Congo
as planned. Fred Blackwell (MWP Chief Operations Officer)
and Eugenio Kirma (MWP Kenyan logistician) went in my stead.
They both came back with such heart wrenching confirmation
and firm HOPE of a wonderful indigenous partner, that I was
anxious to return in May.
Today,
we are pleased to annouce our new indigenous anit-trafficking
member Flame of Love. To learn more about this ministry
click here.
- Kimberly Smith, President
As
the new Chief Operations Officer for Make Way Partners, I
definitely had to call upon the strength of the Lord when
Kimberly was medivacked out of Sudan with Malaria and pneumonia,
leaving me to make my first trip to Congo without her. I am
thankful Eugenio, our Logistician from Kenya, was able to
travel with me. Together, Eugenio and I met woman after woman,
child after child, who carry the unbearable weight of a war
waged for gold, coltan (more valuable than titanium) and many
other much sought after commodities from the natural resource-rich
country.
Niyansaba Hakizimana was one woman who captured my heart.
She grew up in a beautiful rural area near the city of Goma.
Around her village, bananas and mangos grow naturally. The
land is fertile. Her lush tropical valley is nestled between
beautiful mountain ranges. Forests are dense and full of life.
In spite of the surrounding beauty, this paradise became a
living hell for Niya. She can’t remember her parents. She
doesn’t know when she was born and she never attended a single
day of school.
Since the mid-1990s, the violence and instability of the Rwandan
genocide has spilled across the border into the Congo. The
lush mountains and forests make great hiding places for the
Rwandan rebels fleeing prosecution for the genocide.
Through the years, we’ve received many reports of peacemaking,
forgiveness and revivals in Rwanda. While this bears some
truth, another truth is that peace has come to Rwanda largely
because the murderers fled to Congo. There, they now attack
villages and refugee camps in Congo instead of Rwanda, raping
and enslaving women and children, killing and maiming the
men, and burning homes and livestock.
An orphan, Niya’s grandmother did her best to raise her. She
married as a young woman, leaving her grandmother for her
husband’s home. On the day after her wedding, rebels came.
They tied up her husband and severely beat him with the butt
of their rifles. They forced him to watch as they repeatedly
raped Niya, his bride of but one day. They cut her mother-in-law
with a machete down the entire length of her thigh and shot
her father-in-law in the leg. The bullet completely severed
his bone. The last thing Niya remembers is watching her husband
lay on the ground bleeding as the rebels drug her away to
become their sex slave.
After two months of captivity, forced servitude, and repeated
rape, Niya---and the sixteen other female captives---plotted
to escape. They made their break in the early morning as the
sun was coming up. Seven of the girls were so weakened that
they were unable to run; they were easily gunned down. Niya
was among a small group that made it to freedom.
She eventually found her way back home and to her husband.
Although it is rare for a husband in Congo to accept his wife
after she’s been raped, Niya’s husband did. He took her to
a doctor, and together, they learned Niya was pregnant from
her time as a sex slave. When the baby was newborn, her husband
treated him as his own. However, once Niya gave birth to his
flesh and blood, he rejected the child of rape. Without proper
care, which culturally comes along with a father’s blessing,
Niya’s first child died from disease, probably brought on
from malnutrition.
Attacks continued in the region and caused much instability.
Basic life necessities of food, clean water, and medicine
were nearly impossible to come by. This forced Niya and her
husband to move to an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp
in Buhimba, 85 km from their home village. Before they could
even settle in the IDP camp, they received word that Niya’s
in-laws’ were ill. Niya’s husband was concerned that if he
returned---and was caught by rebels---he might be killed.
So he sent Niya and his sister to make the trip. He rationalized
they would only be raped, not killed.
When the two young women reached the village, they saw bodies
strewn among the rubble of smoldering homes. No one was left
alive to tell exactly what had happened. Niya’s in laws home
was one of the few left standing. She drug their bodies into
their hut. She comforted herself by thinking at least they
would decay in peace, safe from scavenger wildlife. Just as
she finished her painful task, another group of rebels rampaged
the village and pounced on the two women.
Niya watched as they raped her sister-in-law so violently
over and over again---man after man---the frail woman died.
As they tore into Niya, she wondered if this would be her
fate as well. Part of her wished it would be. In the midst
of her rape, yet another group of rebels entered the village.
The second group chased the first group away. The second group
of soldiers helped Niya; so she voluntarily went with them
to the village of Nyanzale where she was given medical treatment.
These rebels even helped her to make the trip back to the
IDP camp where she could find her husband.
Again, her husband took her to the doctor. Again, together,
they learned she was pregnant from rape.
This
time Niya’s husband met the announcement with harshness, resentment,
and blame toward Niya. When she delivered yet another child
born as a result of rape, her husband refused to give the
child his family name. He became increasingly violent and
told Niyansaba that the rapes were her fault. He became physically
abusive.
Without continued international support, many of the IDP camps
are closing. When the one she lived in closed, Niya was forced
to move. She and her children now live in a wooden shanty
with a tin roof that is built on lava rock. The hut is one
room with a tarp to divide off a sleeping area. Her husband
drinks heavily and comes in terrorizing them anytime he has
nowhere else to go.
About one-third of Goma is covered in lava from the active
volcano Mount Niyragongo. Niya’s house is near the base of
the volcano. The mountain spews smoke during the day and glows
red at night. Many of Goma’s streets are no more than alleys
which lava formed through numerous eruptions.
Niya has never been to school. Now her children are school
age, but her husband will not support them, so they cannot
go either. She cares for them as best she can with the two
dollars per day she earns by going to the market and carrying
heavy loads of wood or water for other people. She lives in
constant fear that she will not be able to carry enough wood
and water to pay the rent on her lava home each month. She
knows she would be evicted if she is one day late. She has
nowhere else to go.
Niyansaba Hakizimana is among thousands of Congolese women
who have had their lives turned upside down because of rape,
sexual slavery, and oppression.
-Fred
Blackwell, Chief Operations Officer
CLICK
HERE to help the women and children
in MWP Flame of Love Ministry in Sudan!
