Untold horrors in Congo - This is really sad

The first time I met Martha, she was beaming and surrounded by children of all ages, screaming gleefully and grabbing her skirt. The next time we met, her smile was gone and her eyes, glazed.

The night before, she had carried to the hospital a 10-year-old girl who had been gang-raped in front of her family by rebels fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The girl died on Martha's back on their way to the hospital.

In the past few months, Martha's phone rings every day with cries for help for women and girls who have been raped. It is a familiar pattern in the North Kivu region of DRC.

"When there is fighting, there is rape. Yesterday, I had two new arrivals. Two women and a baby. The women and girls are raped, some are killed, and others, taken away. This is the way it always is."

The Congo war has been going for more than a decade. According to the International Rescue Committee (IRC), about 45,000 people die a month and since the war began, 6 million have died and 1.4 million made homeless.

In this latest flare-up of fierce fighting, a further 250,000 people have become homeless within three weeks. The ceasefire last month and the peace agreement in January that was signed by rebel leader Laurent Nkunda have failed.

But the untold horrors of this war are the stories of thousands upon thousands of women, girls and children who suffer brutal sexual violence, the worst in the world, according to the UN.

Martha's own story is horrifyingly unbelievable. At 32, when the war began, her village was attacked by rebels.

"They came and took all our belongings and then they told my husband he was a dead man. They took the machete and started to cut him. They chopped him up into pieces like a cow or goat at the market."

"When they had finished, they yelled at me to pick up the pieces of his body and to put them in a pile. There was blood everywhere and on everything in the bedroom. They told me they would kill me if I cried."
When she had finished piling up her husband's body, they took a knife and started cutting her on the face, neck, arms and legs.

"Then they told me to lay on top of my husband's body parts and that is when they began raping me. There were 10 of them and one by one, they raped me."

And while Martha was being raped, two other soldiers raped her 14- and 16-year-old daughters in the next room.

"I could hear my girls screaming and I couldn't help them. Then I stopped thinking and my mind was not there anymore."

Martha did not remember any of this until six months later.

"I asked my neighbours what had happened. I thought my husband was away on business. They didn't tell me. But I went home one day and saw that two of my daughters were pregnant and didn't know how this could be. That's when the community began to tell me what happened."

The viciousness of Martha's attack destroyed her body. Her uterus was torn so horrifically that it hung between her legs. She couldn't walk with her legs together, and she endured this horrific, painful condition for two years until she met a surgeon at Heal Africa � a hospital that treated rape victims.

Suddenly, the blank look that has been on Martha's face throughout most of our meeting is gone and the depth of her pain is visible, "I cannot have anymore children. They removed everything."

In Congo there is belligerent rape by all sides. There is shooting, looting and raping. They go hand in hand in this war. Rebels and soldiers take everything from people who have almost nothing to give.

"There are guns and rape. You cannot stop rape until you stop war," says Clarisse Kasaza, a World Vision aid worker who works with rape victims. "In 2006, many families started hiding their wives, mums and daughters in the ceiling. But eventually, bandits became suspicious and if they didn't see women in the home, they would start shooting the roof. There is nowhere for women to hide here."

Martha, who is now 43, has committed her life now to helping rape victims and caring for children who are born from rape.

"Three times a month I speak in communities to help people understand the crime of rape and I teach other women to be helpers in their communities."

In the past year of fighting, a group of 90 women have formed around Martha to support one another. They meet weekly and those who are rejected by their husbands after being raped have taken a house together.

"We also have a revolving loan so we can build up a market business and savings for the group. That way, we can afford to feed our children and send the children to school."

Martha's 18-year-old daughter, Venacia, helps look after the 12 orphaned children who now share her home. "They are like brothers and sisters," she says. "We play together, I teach them how to help around the house and make them food."

Venacia sees the worst of it every week. "When my mother gets a call, there is usually a woman or girl that comes to our house after. Sometimes, they are bleeding very badly."

"One month ago, I saw soldiers raping two girls. And then one of them pushed sticks up the vagina of one of the girls and started saying terrible things to her. She was bleeding very badly. I ran to get my mother and when we got back, one of the girls had died. We took the other one home to care for her."

"I am angry every time my mother brings women to our house and I see them suffering. Many are very badly wounded with blood coming out of them. It is all sides doing this to women, not just one. And I am scared because I know this could happen to me," says Venacia.

More than 2,000 rape cases are reported in the North Kivu region a month. One community in Rutshuru, now under rebel control, reported 150 cases in a month. But most rapes are not reported.

"Women are scared and fear discrimination, community isolation or being thrown out of home by their husbands," says Clarisse.

Of all the women I met, none had officially reported their rape. Most feared the stigma and repercussions, and felt too humiliated to talk about it.

Not everyone is happy about Martha's help. Last month she was again raped while collecting firewood, and last week, attacked in her home by soldiers who demanded she stop doing this work with women. But she will not be discouraged. "It's what keeps me going. I have thought about ending my life many, many times. But then I see the children I have and the women who need support and I stop myself."

A woman strolls in as we finish up talking. She represents the latest chapter in this horrible war. She arrived last night after rebels attacked her village, raping her and many other women in front of everyone. Her sisters were grabbed and taken away. She does not know where they are, but knows the worst is true.

"They choose girls and take them away as wives. They keep them as sexual toys until they become pregnant and then, throw them away. They always do this," says Martha.

Martha's story happened when the war began. This latest round of bloodshed is no different. The raping goes on and it is just as brutal and prevalent as ever…

Martha and Venacia are pseudonyms.
By Michelle Rice, World Vision
** Came across this story when i was visiting the worldvision website. This is so sad... Wished there were no Wars and woman & children suffer No More.