TWICE VICTIMS – The plight of rape survivors in DRC
I was bathing
when a man suddenly appeared.
By the time I realised
he’d brought out a gun and I couldn't run away.
He raped me, saying: "If you refuse, I'll kill you."
He’s the reason I’m divorced.
Sexual violence is a fact, a reality
across the whole country.
It has existed here
for a long time.
Previously it went unnoticed
but with the upsurge in violence,
war and conflict,

sexual violence has spread
throughout the country.
In our consultations we see children not even five years old,
we see mothers of childbearing age,
under-18s...
Most of the time these rapes

occur on the road, as people go about their business
or go to the market.
Most people in the area
are farmers.
When I heard the announcement on the radio
I decided to come for a consultation
because I didn’t know the HIV status of my attackers.

Thanks to tests, I can find out if I have any infections and get treatment.
I heard from friends and on the radio that victims of sexual violence can receive treatment.
That’s how I came here.
Normally a survivor of sexual violence
must come for treatment
within 72 hours
to receive
comprehensive care
and prevent any infections
as a result of the violence.
A victim of sexual violence is an emergency.

She needs to receive treatment quickly.
I didn’t keep it a secret from my husband because I hadn’t committed adultery.
But when I told him, he left the house.
He left me with the children, without leaving us anything.
We began to suffer.
In the end, he threw me out of the house and took the children.
I was homeless, I didn’t know what to do.
I suffered a lot.
A married woman who has been raped
alongside her husband and her sons ...
The way we are educated,
for husbands,
it’s as if the woman
has defiled the house,
so the whole family feels humiliated.
We forget the suffering that the woman
is going through
and on top of that we reject her.
When I got home
I told my husband
that I’d been raped at around 3 am.
My husband didn't believe me, he wouldn’t accept it.
As I was pregnant at the time,
he told me the father of the child was not him
but was one of the men who raped me.
In his eyes, I had prostituted myself with them.
In some cultures, the community does not accept
them
as rape survivors.
They are accused of being
the cause of the incident.
They are marginalised
and stigmatised.
Some become depressed
and even suicidal
because they are not accepted
and they do not have the support
of their community.
I'm at the end of the line psychologically.
I’m thinking about prostitution to make ends meet
but something is stopping me.
I have children, all grown up already.
My husband's family have agreed I can come back
if I pay them compensation.
In our centre
we’ve received many women who have been rejected.
The family tells the woman:
"To come back, you have to pay compensation."
That could be goats
or chickens.
The woman cannot…
She is left penniless,
so she is a victim twice over.
I’m suffering.
I hope I can heal and rebuild myself.
If I feel better and find a job
I'll be able to support my family.
In 2020, MSF teams provided medical and psychological assistance to 10,608 victims of sexual violence in DRC.

But the needs of survivors do not end there.

Rejected and impoverished,

they also need social, economic and legal support


to help them get back on their feet

and move on, in spite of everything.
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