A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

WPIO Report: Massacre Against Pygmy Family

March 23, 2003
Human Rights Violations and Massacre Committed Against Pygmy Family Gathering in Eastern DRC

The original history was recorded by Union des Chretiens au Congo de l’Est. Union des Chretiens au Congo de l’Est is a human rights organization promoting the values of human rights among communities in eastern DRC.

Fredrick W. MweneNgabo, a human rights activist from the indigenous baYanda pygmy community in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was beaten, tortured and traumatized. His aunt Cimpaye Momba, age 50, was raped and killed and her daughter Nankungu Mbenga, age 20, was raped. Her brother Leonard Kanga, age 24, was beaten, tortured and captured in the forest together with his sister.

Cimpaye Momba, Nankungu Mbenga and Leonard Kanga were all pygmies from the baYanda indigenous community.

This occured on 5/08/1998 at around 9 pm in the Bugarura forest area of the biggest island of the DRC (Idjwi Island).  Idjwi is an island situated in Lake Kivu between North Kivu (Goma) and South Kivu (Bukavu), Eastern DRC.

“We were all around a big fire in front of our small mud and wattle temporary house” recounted Fredrick W. MweneNgabo. “All of a sudden came a group of 19 men in military uniforms and well armed speaking Kinya-rwanda. All of us were at gun points. The militiamen told us that any one who shouts will be killed. Three men raped Cimpaye Momba and three other men raped her daughter.

"The armed men had heavy gun machines and the goods they looted.

“After me and my cousin Leonard Kanga Mulume were beaten and my aunt Cimpaye Momba and her daughter Nankungu Mbenga raped; we were all forced to carry heavy gun machines and the goods that they looted to the lake were they had they motto boat waiting for them.

"But the raped old widow Cimpaye Momba was not able to carry anything or even walk or even to stand.

"The armed men forced her to walk but then she was not able. One of the armed men cut her into pieces with a knife and immediately she was dead. The three of us (the raped weak girl Nankungu Mbenga, Leonard Kanga Mulume and Me) traumatized, beaten tortured and heavily carrying under the escort by the 19 well armed men arrived where their motor boat was waiting for them.

"In the boat four of the armed men one after another raped again the girl(Nankungu Mbenga) now raped by total of seven men in one night; traumatised, and heavily bleeding from her sexual organs. She lost conscience in the boat.

"Later I was told by the militiamen to rape her while in an inconscient state but I refused.

"When I refused the militiamen told me to rape my cousin Leonard Kanga who is also a man like me but I refused. I was beaten very seriously, my body was bleeding all over; I requested them to kill me but they refused; all parts of my body were paining and bleeding. One of them told me to make pygmies’ traditional medicines to make us escape or save us from them; another one asked me if it was true pygmies flesh is very tasty but I did not reply, then another one (militia) said that indeed the meat from a pygmy is best and tasty; then another militia said ‘today I will eat you’.

"We reached the river side of the lake when the birds were chanting. The militiamen captured people from the nearby village to remove and carry their goods and the heavy gun machines. They forced us to climb mountains with them. It was very horrible and sad for us, Nankungu Mbenga the raped woman was unable to walk but my cousin and I had no option since we were forced. Climbing mountains in the forest I felt down and lost consciousness.  I was left there alone. In the evening time I regained consciousness. I had been beaten very seriously, paining and bleeding all over. I was smelling bad. I did not know where I was also. I didn’t know (remember) how I reached there and what happened to me.  I sat down and started remembering what happened. I was very saddened and in tears. I never knew again about my cousins.

"I tried and started going slowly and after a one hour walk, I reached the nearby village. I went to one of the families in the area, I asked them where I was; they told me that I was in Kalehe 120 kilometres from where I was captured.

"I started narrating what happened to me, they were also saddened by my situation and they were sorry. The man (head of the family) asked me where do I come from and which family and tribe I come from. I told him that I live in Birava and we were captured when we were gathering with my relatives I visited at Idjwi island and I come from the pygmy tribe.

"The man looked at me with eyes full of bitterness and tears, then with a strong voice he told me 'and why didn’t you tell us that you are a pygmy? Don’t you know that you are a curse by coming to my family? Who brought you here?'  He told me 'go back to where you are coming from'; he shook his head 'my culture do not allow me to welcome a pygmy at my home.'

"I was very disappointed and life was not meaning anything for me anymore. I was in tears and it was around 10 pm. There is no bad disease/ sickness than the one of being rejected [and] my body started paining more than before.

"The man told me to follow him and on the way he told me that he was taking me to the local chief.

"When we reached the chief’s home he introduced me to the chief. The chief told me that I am not supposed to sleep or eat with human beings; he took me in a small mud house where his pigs were sleeping and told me to sleep there. Also I was given pigs food to eat. In the early morning I was taken to the road by the chief and I was thrown in a lorry transporting goods to Fomulac/Katana.

"At Katana there is a famous big hospital where I took myself after being abandoned by the lorry people who brought me. After being examined by the doctor; I was treated for the first day very nicely like everybody and was even given good food. The second day I was interviewed by the doctor and filled in forms for treatment. After he [understood] that I was a pygmy he [moved] from where I was in the hospital. He took me to isolated areas of the hospital, where I can not see even the other sick people. This isolation area is where people with deadly sicknesses like leprosy, Ebola etc. are taken to and treated. The doctor was no [longer] interested in the progress of my health. I was there for his fun; he was now interested on how I felt sleeping in a nice bad and eating human beings food.

"After one week I was discharged from the hospital then went back to Birava where I was living before visiting my relatives at the Idjwi island."

The pygmies in the war ravaged DRC are easily targeted by militiamen and government soldiers who have reduced the eastern provinces to one of the bloodiest zones of war. It is a conflict almost two decades long and in which almost five million people, most of them being civilians have lost lives. It is also a conflict where rape is a weapon of war.
 
Our recommendation is to request that the international community  put pressure on both the DRC government and all militia groups to protect civilians including all those who live in the forests like pygmies, peasants and any other indigenous community; [end] all the acts of torturing, slaughtering, eating human flesh, mass killing etc [and] all crimes against humanity.
 
With your help human rights can be respected in DRC.