About fifty women who were raped in the Kasapa prison in Lubumbashi are still waiting to be taken into custody. These women were held in this prison during the riots that shook the prison on September 25, 26 and 27. Since then, they have not seen a gynecologist or a judge. They have been abandoned to their sad fate. RFI was able to meet them on the spot.
as reported from Lubumbashi, Sonia Rolley
It is in a small hangar, in their pavilion in the Kasapa prison in Lubumbashi, that these women spend the night with their children. The cells where they were kept burned, like the men’s during the riots, with most of their personal belongings. They are questioned by RFI, they remember with horror on September 25th.
When the riot begins, they are locked up in prison for their safety. But the guards lose control of the situation and the killers force the padlocks and then drag the inmates to the central field.
For three days, they will be raped regularly, some of about twenty prisoners. The UN also says it has received credible reports of rapes of underage boys and girls. The victims will not see their trial end until the authorities regain control of the prison on 28 September.
Two months after the horror, no one has reversed their fate
Since then, they say, they have barely been taken care of: only antiretroviral drugs have gone out and about twenty medical kits have been distributed. It’s too little and too late. These women are at risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, becoming pregnant and suffering from medical complications. The UN says that the authorities suspended access to the Kasapa prison for several days.
Now, two months later, they are complaining of stomach pain and bleeding. Most of these women were and remain in preventive custody. Some for minor crimes, such as a policewoman in the sixties, were imprisoned for losing their beret. Or a young woman who swears she was locked up after a conflict with her father’s new wife.
The campaign for 16 days of activism to stop sexual violence is in full swing in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And strangely enough, these victims seem to have been forgotten. No one has really looked back on their fate in two months. In any case, no police or judge. Not even the provincial authorities, who did not want to answer RFI’s questions. The mutiners were transferred to another prison in Likasi.
“There are not many ways to combat violence against women”
Chantal Yelu Mulop, Special Adviser to Félix Tshisekedi, Head of Sexual Violence
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