KAMPALA, UGANDA – Kapinga Bennedict, 25, is a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC.
Bennedict fled her country in 2007 after at attack by Congolese rebels that left her raped, her mother dead and her sister disappeared.
"I got permission to leave the camp and come to Kampala for [medical] treatment. Then, I refused to return to the camp. I decided I would stay on here and try to make a living. "
Bennedict says she had just completed school for the year and was home with her mother and sister, when rebels attacked her home. Her mother, a restaurant owner, had long provided food to warlord Laurent Nkunda and his men on credit. One day the soldiers who had just eaten in their restaurant stormed into their home and raped Bennedict, her mother and sister. Bennedict says all three lost consciousness. Rescued by neighbors and brought to a nearby hospital, Bennedict woke up to the news that her mother had died from injuries she suffered during her violent rape and her sister had disappeared.
The neighbors decided Bennedict should leave the country. The rebels likely believed that all three women had died in the attack. If they heard she was still alive, Bennedict says they would have returned to kill her. It was agreed that a neighbor employed by an international organization would bring her across the border into Uganda where she would be safe.
The rebel group that Bennedict fled are the rebels of warlord Laurent Nkunda, a former army general in the Congolese government who waged a deadly rebellion in the Congo from 2004 to 2009. Nkunda claimed he was protecting the Congolese Tutsis from a similar genocide that had taken place in Rwanda in 1994. Nkunda, who took part in the Rwandan war in the 1990s, was arrested last year when he crossed the Rwandan border.
Like Bennedict, hundreds of thousands of Congolese people have been raped, displaced or killed during by Nkunda’s men. He was indicted for war crimes in 2005 and is currently under investigation by the International Criminal Court.
For the last three years, Uganda has become an increasingly popular destination for central and east Africa’s refugees. Prior to the bombings that killed more than 70 people here this week, Uganda has enjoyed a period of growth, peace and prosperity. Today, UN estimates reveal that135,474 refugees call Uganda home, making it the largest number of refugees in any country in eastern and central Africa. The majority of Uganda’s refugees come from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Burundi, Kenya, Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan.
Despite the fact that many seek a safe haven here, life in the camps is filled with hardships. Sexual violence and exploitation are on the rise for women in the camps. Resources and staple goods are scarce. As a result, many refugees here have left the camps. Uganda is home to tens of thousands of urban refugees, many of whom are undocumented and under the radar.
Registration, Refugee Life, Hardship and Violence
Several months ago, Belize, 20, watched as Congolese rebels killed her parents. A few days later, she was gang raped by the same rebels.
As neighbors learned of her rape, the whole community began to fear for its safety. “The news of my rape spread in our neighborhood. My neighbors said that I was now the wife of [the rebels] men and I would bring them more trouble. They threatened to burn us in our own house to rid them of the trouble we would bring,” she says, clutching a pink scarf tightly around her. When a government soldier offered to marry her for protection, she declined his advances. “He too threatened to kill me,” she says. With nowhere else to turn, Belize, who asked that her last name not be revealed, and her siblings fled their home in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and crossed the border into Uganda.
