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Congo, stories from the forgotten conflict

Abijawa is 24 years old and the eyes of a grown woman. Sitting on the ground, she holds her baby on her lap and talks about the war. The one that bleeds her country, there Democratic Republic of Congo for over twenty years. Hundreds of armed groups in the eastern part of the country terrorize civilians forcing them to flee constantly. The territory and its enormous natural resources, from precious metals to hydrocarbons, compete for each other.

There are 5.6 million internally displaced people in the country. Women and children are the first victims of this forgotten crisis. One of the most complex and prolonged in Africa, with beyond 27 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in 2022.

“There is war in my village,” says Abijawa, displaced in South Kivu. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to return one day. The situation was terrifying and I ran away alone, without my husband. I spent a night in the forest before I got here. I don’t know where my husband took refuge. I don’t even know if he’s alive“.

Rape, women raped in the sunlight, in front of families, child soldiers, attacks in schools and hospitals are daily. Gender-based violence is alarming in the east of the country, with almost five thousand cases registered in 2021, in the eastern provinces.

When the rebels arrived in my village they set everything on fire, killing people», Says Dina Jeanne, 15 years old. “We escaped and arrived here with nothing. Everything is missing at school. We are sitting on the floor, I would like a class with desks ». To this horror are added the possible consequences of war in Ukraine. “The exponential rise in commodity prices threatens to inflict the lethal blow to food security across the African continent,” he comments Lorenzo Eusepi, Deputy Secretary General of ActionAid Italia. In fact, half of the wheat and cereals distributed as food aid by the World Food Program in areas of humanitarian crisis comes from Ukraine and Russia ”.

To provide humanitarian assistance to the displaced population in the east of the country, ActionAid launches the awareness and fundraising campaign Change their story. In the provinces of South Kivu he was born in Maniema new schools will arise to ensure the right to education of the smallest and three multifunctional centers especially intended for women, conceived as protected spaces where to also receive medical assistance. From April 17 to May 31 everyone can give their contribution with a text message or a landline call to solidarity number 45511.

Other stories of Vanity Fair that may interest you:

-Racism, the words that exclude

-Love explained by the children of the Congo

Source: Vanity Fair

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