I really wish all the news I had from this part of the world wasn’t depressing, but unfortunately that’s the way things seem to be going at the moment.

I had a talk with an OCHA official recently about the increased violence against civilians we’ve been seeing since the beginning of the year. This particular OCHA official saw it as being directly tied to the braçage and reorganization operations that have drained crucial areas of South Kivu of FARDC troops. The OCHA official pointed out that in the area of Kilembwe, there has been a significant increase in reported human rights abuses committed by the FDLR since the FARDC units stationed there went into braçage.

According to OCHA and to Jason Stearns over at Congo Siasa, the reintegration of groups such as the FRF and PARECO is not going so smoothly anyway, with some rebel leaders and soldiers deserting the process to go back to acting outside of state authority.

On June 9, Arche d’Alliance monitors reported that elements of Mai Mai Yakutumba raped around 10 women near Kazimia. You may recall that the FARDC unit stationed in Kazimia pulled out a little less than a month ago; when they were passing through Sebele on their way to Kananda, one of the FARDC soldiers shot and wounded SOS FED reintegration officer M’Munga Selemane. So, with zero FARDC presence in Kazimia, human rights violations committed by the FDLR and Mai Mai are increasing. MSF-Holland is expected to try and reach Kazimia next Wednesday to treat the victims of this latest attack.

You will recall an incident previously reported in my blog from May 10 in the village of Matale, where 5 women were raped by unidentified armed men. According to OCHA, the aggressors remain unidentified, and no action has been taken by MONUSCO or the Congolese state.

Thus, the continuing Catch-22 of the conflict in eastern Congo: the FARDC commits human rights abuses against the civilian population when it is present, and when it is not the Mai Mai and FDLR pick right up, with perhaps further intensity. The real test will be whether the state armed groups can be reformed to the point where they stop their depredations of the Congolese population (particularly women) and perform their job of maintaining peace and security.

Hello all, I am back from my holiday in Uganda. It was lovely, but I’m also glad to be back in Uvira. This place feels more and more like “home” with each passing day.

Uganda’s story in terms of development and human rights is quite different from the DR Congo’s. Kampala is a thriving metropolis, with supermarkets, several shopping malls, Chinese restaurants, and choking automobile congestion. It is hard to believe that it is only a 17-hour drive from Uvira. In addition, the people of Uganda seem more cheerful and friendlier than the Congolese, possibly because they have not been beaten down by nearly 20 years of war following the reign of Mobutu. Overall, one could say that Uganda is an East African “success” story, especially considering that the country was once home to one of Africa’s most ruthless dictators, Idi Amin Dada.

However, there still remain problems in Uganda, such as continuing widespread poverty, a high (though decreasing) HIV/AIDS rate, the persecution of the LGBT community, and continuing unrest in the north with Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army.

In Kampala, President Yoweri Museveni’s cowboy-hatted visage glares from many billboards, reminding me of how Uganda became entangled in the Congo Wars in the 1990s/2000s.

On more official business, I had the opportunity to visit an AP partner in Kampala, the Kinawataka Women’s Initiative, founded and directed by Mrs. Benedicta Nanyonga. Kinawataka assists children, mostly girls and mostly AIDS orphans. The children and Mrs. Benedicta make bags and other products out of recycled drinking straws. The proceeds from selling the bags go to the children’s education and upbringing. I was amazed at the durability and quality of the purses, shopping bags, and safari bags created by this group of industrious youngsters. Visit Kinawataka at www.kwiuganda.org and see their products at www.strawbags.org

Back in the Congo, SOS FED continues to move forward. Construction on the water well in Mboko was completed on June 10.

Quick update on the Kikoze incident of 3/26/11: I talked to someone at OCHA about the status of judicial action against the perpetrators of the attack. Apparently, a military tribunal has yet to be realized, and still is in the planning stage. There are concerns for the safety and security of a military tribunal, due to the fact that the accused are ex-FRF combatants who were only recently integrated into the FARDC. A trial up in Muranvya or bringing the accused to trial in Uvira might result in some sinister consequences. However, I was assured that MONUSCO and the FARDC are still working on the case. Let’s hope that justice is served eventually.

Also in the news: Burundian FNL rebels are making more incursions across the border in the Rusizi Plain, near Kiliba. Cultivation in the area is under threat, as farmers (most of them women) will flee their fields once they hear of roving armed groups nearby.

Greetings from Kampala. I’m taking a two-week holiday in Uganda, but I’m keeping in contact with the SOS FED staff back in Uvira and I might post a few more blogs. In the meanwhile, here’s a mini-update on SOS FED activities and the security situation in Uvira/Fizi Territory:

-On May 9 & 10, SOS FED staff members participated in a very successful training conducted by Arche d’Alliance in Baraka. The training was an introduction to human rights, monitoring/reporting on violations of human rights, how the Congolese penal code addresses sexual violence, and some basics of the Congolese civil code. Our staff will be able to impart the knowledge from their training to the beneficiaries, who can return to their communities as effective human rights advocates. In addition, this training will help improve the data-collection skills of our staff and integrate them into the larger human rights monitoring network in Fizi Territory.

SOS FED staff at human rights training in Baraka.  From l-r: Bawili Ningejua, Mariamu Bashishibe, Lubunga Wilonja, Luanja Eca Ricardo, M’Munga Selemani, Sangho Laliya, Chamulungo Nabisha, and Mimmy El Vital

-Beginning in mid-May, two FARDC regiments were re-deployed in Uvira and Fizi Territory. In January/February, a lot of the Amani Leo brigade units had been called in to bases in Lubarika (Uvira) and Kananda (Fizi) for re-organization, re-equipment, and training. The goal of this massive maneuver was to improve the efficiency of the FARDC troops and give them training on respecting human rights and obeying the law. This training process (known as braçage), was performed by the Congolese government with assistance from governments in Europe and the US government. However, when the FARDC troops withdrew from their positions earlier this year, FDLR and Mai Mai elements moved in to control the areas left vacant by the FARDC. Now, the FARDC will be fighting to re-take their positions, so MONUSCO officials have warned me about a possible stark increase in violence throughout portions of Uvira and Fizi Territories. Personally, I am waiting to be convinced that the braçage was effective in improving the behavior of FARDC troops. However, one hopes the re-deployment makes a dent in the FDLR and ultimately reduces the amount of conflict in the region.

-M’Munga Selemani, the SOS FED reintegration officer who was wounded by (now confirmed) FARDC gunfire, is recovering at a hospital in Uvira. Fortunately, his wounds were not life threatening; the bullet grazed him just above his right eye. The women that Mr. Selemani was escorting to Kikonde were unharmed in the incident. Currently, we are working with Arche d’Alliance and MONUSCO Human Rights to see that justice is served.

Stay tuned for more.

The violence in Fizi Territory is starting to hit close to home. On Thursday, May 12, Mr. M’Munga Selemani, the SOS FED Kazimia-based reintegration officer, was shot. I don’t have all the details yet, but here is what I know:

Mr. Selemani was in the process of escorting a group of women from the Ubwari Penninsula to the SOS FED center in Kikonde. In Sebele, some kilometers north of Kikonde, he was shot in the face. Initial reports from the Kikonde center staff stated that FARDC soldiers were responsible, but they have yet to be confirmed. Currently, Mr. Selemani is being treated by MSF in Baraka.

I don’t know what was going on when the shooting took place, but I will be posting this information as I hear about it. Amisi is going down to Mboko and Baraka today, so he will be able to talk to Mr. Selemani and get more details.

I have already contacted OCHA to report the incident, and the local network of NGOs will be notified of the incident. If the aggressors were indeed FARDC troops, the Protection Sub-Cluster of OCHA will contact their unit commander to seek punitive action. I am also intending to inform MONUSCO about the incident. Stay tuned for more.

SOS FED reintegration officer M'Munga Selemane

SOS FED reintegration officer M'Munga Selemane

Attacks on civilians may be picking up again in this part of South Kivu. There have been 3 major events since the beginning of the month:

-On May 10, around midnight, a group of armed men attacked the village of Matale, in the Moyen Plateau of Uvira Territory. The group of armed men locked all the men into one house and all the women into another house, and then proceeded to loot the town. After looting, the armed men picked out five women and raped them. The identity of these armed men is unknown, although it is strongly suspected that they are FARDC, since there is a contingent of FARDC moving through that area of the Moyen Plateau at the moment. The next day, the female survivors of the attack made their way to the Centre de Santé (Health Center) in Ndagereka. Arche d’Alliance sent a monitor up to Matale to do a preliminary investigation, but he was held up by bandits on his way back. Fortunately, he was not hurt, but Arche is not sending anyone else to Matale until they are sure of the security situation. No word on whether MONUSCO will be opening up an investigation or not.

-On May 12, a group of 13 people leaving the market in Nemba, Fizi Territory, were ambushed by a group of 34 FDLR. The ambushed civilians were relieved of their belongings and money, and then were tortured and mutilated to various degrees. The details of the mutilations and tortures as provided by initial reports are fairly gruesome, and I won’t be reporting them here until I am more sure of the details.

-On April 30, an FDLR unit attacked the village of Kikonde (yes, where SOS FED has a center), Fizi Territory. Seven shops were robbed and one merchant was wounded by gunfire. The FDLR has a jungle base near Ngandja, and their forays into Kikonde were made easier by the fact that there is no longer a FARDC unit stationed there; the Amani Leo unit that was in Kikonde left in February for reorganization and training. Ironically, despite the fact that the Amani Leo brigades are still greatly resented by the civilian population, their presence could have prevented such an attack. The Amani Leo brigades are still in braçage closer to the bigger towns of Fizi, and rumor has it they are not too keen on heading back into the bush to fight the FDLR.

The good news is that the SOS FED center in Kikonde was not affected by the attack; the SOS FED staff and beneficiaries in Kikonde are safe and sound. However, this attack and the robbery of the Arche monitor in Matale are brutal reminders of the dangers facing the civilian population of South Kivu, and in particular the high-risk environment for defenders of human rights.

SOS FED beneficiary in a manioc field near Mboko

SOS FED beneficiary in a manioc field near Mboko

There are a few corrections to my coverage of the Kikoze mass rape incident:

-I originally reported the date of the ex-FRF FARDC attack and mass rape in Kikoze as March 31st. This date should actually be March 26th, 2011.

-I also reported that 9 survivors came to Uvira to receive treatment. The total number of confirmed cases in the Kikoze mass rape is 9; however, only 8 women came to Uvira to receive treatment and report the incident.

-The battalion commander for the FARDC unit in question is located in Muranvia, which I originally spelled Murambia, but I’ve seen it spelled both ways. The same goes for Kikoze; it can also be spelled Kikozi.

And now, more updates:

-The FARDC commander in Muranvia has confirmed that he sent his troops to the Kikoze to hunt Mai Mai elements in the area, but still denies that his soldiers raped anyone.

-The UN mission to Kikoze and Muranvia noted the high number of child soldiers among the ex-FRF FARDC troops.

-OCHA and CTLVS-Uvira are coordinating meetings between local organizations to come up with ways to provide more services in the Haut Plateau area, in particular in the area around Bijombo (which includes the village of Kikoze). There are several NGOs, notably AGAPE, AJDC (Associations des Jeunes pour le Développement du Congo), and Arche d’Alliance, that have created a synergy to bring psychosocial services and human rights monitoring to the Bijombo zone of the Haut Plateau.

And now, a bit of commentary. In my opinion, the follow-up surrounding the Kikoze incident is moving a bit slowly for a number of reasons:

-The Kikoze area is very remote, and therefore investigating the matter requires quite a bit more time and resource investment on the part of the UN.

-The media has not picked up on this incident, unlike the New Years Day incident in Fizi Town. This probably has a lot to do with the numbers, 50+ confirmed in Fizi Town versus 9 cases confirmed in Kikoze so far.

-In the incident in Fizi Town, there were MONUSCO troops stationed nearby during the attack and mass rape. Perhaps the UN moved faster on providing the impetus to arrest Col. Kibibi and his men because the incident happened where they were supposed to be able to protect civilians.

-The reality is that the MONUSCO mission in Uvira and Fizi is still very constrained by the lack of resources, a difficult operating environment, and the fact that these incidents are being committed by armed combatants on both sides. MONUSCO still has very limited presence in Fizi Territory and in the Haut Plateau of both Uvira and Fizi. Maybe there is also some lack of initiative from higher up; Margot Wallstrom, the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence, has yet to visit Fizi Territory, despite the fact that the region is sliding backwards in terms of sexual violence committed by armed groups. I don’t think it is going out on a limb to say that the Congolese government is also showing little initiative in terms of cutting down the impunity of its own troops.

On 4-21-11 I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with a MONUSCO official in Uvira. I asked him some questions about MONUSCO response to incidents such as the recent mass rape in Kikoze. The MONUSCO official gave me a detailed plan of how MONUSCO reacts according to their mandate to intervene, support, prevent, and provide follow-up.

When the Kikoze mass rape was first reported, MONUSCO immediately sent troops from the Pakistani Battalion (PAKBATT) to Kikoze via helicopter for a fact-finding mission. Once the PAKBATT unit confirmed the abuse of human rights in the area, a special force of Egyptian troops was sent to Kikoze in order to show a UN presence, to protect the villagers from further harassment. All during this time, MONUSCO prepared a mission to Kikoze, with a joint protection team from Civil Affairs, Human Rights, Political Affairs, UN Police (UNPOL), and PAKBATT. This mission also included several local partners, such as Arche d’Alliance and AMCAV.

In addition to their own investigation, MONUSCO assists in legal proceedings against the perpetrators, providing impetus and support to the Congolese military justice division that will prosecute the soldiers allegedly responsible for the attacks. It should be noted that the commanding officers of the FARDC unit in question deny that their soldiers committed any wrongdoing.

Currently, the MONUSCO mission is investigating the Kikoze incident and meeting with the FARDC battalion commander in Murambia over the allegations. Then, a military tribunal is supposed to form to bring the perpetrators to justice. This echoes the same response that occurred after the New Years Day mass rape in Fizi Town: MONUSCO sent a mission to Fizi to investigate and provide stability, then they provided transportation and other support to the Congolese military court in Baraka that tried and convicted Col. Kibibi and his men.

The official also told me that MONUSCO is using an ongoing proactive approach at all levels (national as well as territorial) to prevent human rights abuses by the FARDC. MONUSCO is also involved in training officials in human rights, supporting the justice system, and disseminating the law among Congolese citizens.

There is a lot of discussion as to how effective MONUSCO is at maintaining peace and stability in eastern Congo, especially since incidents such as the one in Kikoze continue to occur. However, one must remember that the tangle of conflict in eastern Congo is complicated and involves much more than just MONUSCO. To be sure, local civil society organizations, such as SOS FED and Arche d’Alliance, remain at the front lines in terms of providing assistance to vulnerable persons and monitoring the human rights situation.

I will have more information on this situation, as well as commentary, as I find out more on the local, national, and international response to the Kikoze incident.

Great news:

SOS FED, The Advocacy Project, and ifa-Zivik are entering into the next phase of the 2011 project. Here are some of the aspects that we have begun working on:

-Arche d’Alliance will be providing human rights and monitoring training for our field staff. Our field staff have already lived and breathed the war of the past 17 years, but through this training they will hopefully become more effective advocates in an area that is pretty much a human rights Chernobyl. In addition, our more formally trained field staff will be able to pass on their knowledge to the beneficiaries, who in turn can be better advocates in their own communities.

-The first stage of a briquette press is underway. The briquette press is a miraculous mechanical marvel that transforms everyday garbage (banana peels, corncobs, rice husks, etc) into little trash biscuits that are used as an alternative fuel source. How can such a miraculous marvelous machine work? Well, the training video that Ned Meerdink and I made for the briquette press is still on the Advocacy Project YouTube page somewhere at http://www.youtube.com/advproject.

-Clean potable water is a constant problem in Fizi Territory, so SOS FED will be installing pumps near the two centers in Kikonde and Mboko. The issue of water is also important to the general wellbeing of women in the community, encompassing everything from health to security. The traditional division of labor in the Congo (and in most of Africa) dictates that women are responsible for collecting water for the household, and thus water scarcity issues disproportionately affect women. A woman who travels alone for 5 hours to collect a bidon of water may risk being attacked in the jungle. In addition, carrying 10 liters or more of water on one’s head for great distances can greatly impact a person’s health and longevity.

It will take time to accomplish all of these goals, but the important thing is that we are finally giving it some legs. Stay tuned for more.

Quick update on the Kikoze situation: the MONUSCO mission scheduled for last week was delayed because one of the MONUSCO Uvira staff members was killed in the terrible MONUSCO plane crash a few weeks back. Currently, they are supposed to be up in the Haut Plateau, and they plan to pay a visit to the local FARDC commander in Minembwe. For the record, the FARDC commander so far denies that his troops raped any women in/around Kikoze. However, monitors from Arche d’Alliance have made several trips up to the Kikoze area since the incident, and the villagers reported that the FARDC has been making regular forays into the communities around their base to steal goats. The incident on 3-26-11 [edited] apparently escalated into mass rape when the FARDC troops started knocking down the doors to people’s houses.

SOS FED beneficiaries at the Mboko center

SOS FED beneficiaries at the Mboko center

On March 31^st, an attack on civilians occurred in the village of Kikoze, in the Haut Plateau of Uvira Territory.  The perpetrators were integrated ex-FRF units of the FARDC, stationed nearby.  A number of women in Kikoze were raped, and on April 5^th, 9 survivors arrived in Uvira town to seek assistance and report the incident.  PSVS lodged the women and gave them first-response psychological care, while Arche d’Alliance collected the information regarding the attack for legal and human rights action.  PSVS also facilitated medical treatment for the women at the hospital in Uvira, with direct financial support from IRC.  Other organizations that provided resources and assistance were AMCAV and CICR.

Kikoze is about a 3-day journey out of Uvira, and most of the journey must be made on foot across difficult terrain.  In the remote areas of the Haut Plateau, monitoring the human rights situation remains difficult because of the lack of access to these areas.

On April 8^th, all the women who had come down from Kikoze started their return journey home.  PSVS gave each woman a pagne and a cooking pot to take back home with her.

On the same day that the women of Kikoze were sent home, OCHA held its weekly security briefing, and the incident in Kikoze was discussed at length.  One of the concerns brought up at the OCHA meeting was that there still aren’t many transportation resources available for the Haut Plateau and other remote regions of the Eastern Congo.  Remember, it takes days to reach a place like Kikoze by foot, and it is hardly the most remote village in the Haut Plateau.  If a survivor requires immediate and drastic medical treatment, she may not be able to make it a major hospital in time.  In addition, human rights monitors in the Haut Plateau are also sparse, and villages in the hills lack the maisons d’ecoutes that are mostly scattered in towns along heavily populated thoroughfares.

Another alarming concern was brought to light; these women will return to Kikoze with their pagne and cooking pot, but there still remains little protection for them back in their village, or even en route to their homes, traveling on lonely mountain footpaths.  Some of those at the OCHA meeting expressed concern that the women were being sent home unaccompanied.  Indeed, even if they return home safely, they may risk being re-violated or even killed, since they dared seek help outside of their community and shared the details of the incident with human rights monitors.  The same FARDC unit is presumably still near Kikoze, with the violators in its ranks.  Were these women being sent to their doom after being already violated, with only a pagne and a cooking pot to show for it?

Again, an unfortunate symptom of the problem of sexual violence in the Kivus and the response from the NGO community: women are often left vulnerable after seeking assistance from humanitarian organizations.  Granted, protection from the FARDC is a responsibility that lies with the Congolese government, and they deserve criticism for failing to curb the depraved and violent behavior of their own soldiers.

Whether it is from the lack of resources to surmount the many obstacles, or from the lack of will to follow through, local and international organizations are failing to provide sufficient care and protection for many survivors.  Sometimes, the lack of creative thinking or recognition of these problems seem to defy common sense, and gives the appearance of apathy.  Much of what I heard at the OCHA meeting was a bit stultifying, although I don’t doubt there are many individuals and groups who are hard at work to assist survivors of sexual violence.   However, SOS FED, which is a tiny organization compared to a lot of the big-hitter NGOs in Uvira, appears to provide its beneficiaries with much better care than what was given to the survivors from Kikoze.

Women leaving our centers are accompanied back home by reintegration officers, who meet with community leaders to make sure that the reintegrating woman’s rights will be respected upon her return.  Currently, SOS FED’s two reintegration officers in Kazimia and Kikonde are accompanying women returning to the Ubwari Peninsula, the site of ongoing combat between the FARDC, FDLR, and Mai Mai.

In addition, women leaving our centers receive a small cash stipend to help them in starting over again in their community.  This is in addition to whatever income they gained at the SOS FED center from practicing communal cultivation.

Personally, I question how much psychological recovery survivors can gain in 3 days, especially considering the devastating psychosocial consequences of rape in Eastern Congo.  This is why we never send women home after 3 days with a pagne and a cooking pot.  However, SOS FED is still a small organization with limited resources confronting an enormous problem.  I believe the difference is that SOS FED’s model is highly replicable and yet still very effective.  SOS Fed’s model has an emphasis on wholly treating the outcomes of rape, including the social, psychological, and economic effects.  For what we cannot do ourselves, we seek partnerships with organizations like Arche d’Alliance to provide more complete assistance to our beneficiaries.

PSVS still does a pretty good job, and this is not meant to be a critique of PSVS or their financiers at IRC.  Nonetheless, perhaps the humanitarian community as a whole needs to look at the models by which they assist the women of South Kivu, and ask themselves if they are really as effective and efficient as they can be.  So far, no one is scrambling to replicate the SOS FED model, and SOS FED is still spending a lot less than what a lot of local NGOs here receive from international financiers.

The nine survivors from Kikoze demonstrated courage by making a dangerous journey to Uvira to seek assistance, denounce the perpetrators, and then return to their village.  Next week, MONUSCO is supposed to be sending a mission to Kikoze to investigate the incident.  The survivors who made their way to Uvira indicated that there are probably more women who were raped by the FARDC in the Kikoze area.  And we are only a little over three months into the year…

There is evidence of a growing humanitarian crisis in Fizi Territory. I have been attending regular OCHA security briefings to keep updated on the situation in Uvira and Fizi. Now, I will share some of what I have been hearing. We start in the Ubwari Peninsula, down in Fizi Territory.

The Ubwari Peninsula juts into Lake Tanganyika, south of Baraka and just north of Kazimia. In the month of March, battles continued between Amani Leo troops and Mai Mai Yakutumba on the Ubwari. Thus, accessibility to the villages in the Ubwari has been limited for humanitarian agents, and there is very little information on refugee movements and civilian casualties coming from the area. Fighting near Kazimia has resulted in at least 1 reported civilian casualty. Last year SOS FED closed the reception center in Kazimia, which was the right decision, given the current proximity of combat.

There are concerns about the lack of protection in the area around Kilembwe, in the Haut Plateau, where the FLDR is targeting the civilian population. Many of the mass rapes committed by the FDLR this year happened in the vicinity of Kilembwe and Kilimba. Supposedly there are plans for a larger Amani Leo operation to head into the Kilembwe area to drive out the FDLR. Right now, MONUSCO patrols only reach Kilicha. On March 14, more than 40 civilians were robbed by the FDLR on their way to the market in Kilicha.
The Mai Mai is waylaying and robbing travelers on the road from Uvira to Baraka, near the villages of Elila and Kabondozi. On March 16, a vehicle belonging to the NGO TEARFUND was ambushed and robbed near Mukindje, about 15 km from Baraka. In these incidents, there were no reported injuries.

In March, more FNL activity has been reported, throwing in another wrench in the machine. The FNL (Forces Nationales pour la Libération) is a Burundian rebel movement that is opposed to the current government in Burundi. In Uvira Territory, combat between the FNL and the FARDC on March 12 disrupted agricultural activity near Kiliba; when farmers hear that there is fighting close by, they become reluctant to go to their fields. In Fizi, as of March 15 it was reported that over 200 FNL troops were camped out in the forest of Lulambo, near the village of Kabembwe.

Now, we return to Uvira Territory, for a demonstration of just how difficult it is to negotiate the security situation in South Kivu. Due to increased incidents of armed bandits waylaying travelers in the Runingu area, the Pakistani Battalion of MONUSCO (PAKBATT) stationed in Uvira Territory attempted to create a Temporary Operations Base (TOB) in Kashatu. However, they soon abandoned their plans, due to a lack of support from the local authorities. Apparently, the local authorities wanted more and more money from MONUSCO for “permission” to put a TOB there, even though this would have increased security for the civilian population. Again, another demonstration of just how difficult it is, even for the UN, to stabilize the security situation in a region rife with corruption.

In February, Médecins Sans Frontières released a briefing on the “dramatic increase in mass rape and violence” in Fizi Territory. There are worries that the conflict in Fizi is entering into a “new phase of brutality”. In recent years, MSF saw a decline in reported incidents of sexual violence in Fizi; however, this trend is starting to reverse itself. The situation of women in Fizi, which has never been good, is getting worse.

On March 13, I wrote an entry about the cases of mass rape that have been rising since the beginning of the year. Please refer to that entry for a more complete picture of this “new phase of brutality”. Stay tuned for more.