Women in war zones: “Having worked in humanitarian work for 22 years, I was the one who needed help” (By Nathalie Minard, UN News)
Kinshasa, DRC (PANA) - “In 22 years of humanitarian work, I could not imagine that I was the one who needed help,” says Anne-Marie Lurhakumnira Nabintu, a UN Women employee in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
In charge of projects to ensure the safety of women, she lived and worked in Goma, the capital of the province of North Kivu, before being forced to leave and find refuge on February 1 in Kinshasa, the Congolese capital.
On the occasion of International Women's Day, UN News looks at the suffering of women living in war zones and their capacity for resilience.
Eastern DRC has been gripped by renewed violence since January, with the M23 armed group taking control of the region's two main cities, Goma and Bukavu.
The lightning offensive has left thousands dead according to the UN, which fears a conflagration in this highly coveted region.
According to UN Women, the UN agency for gender equality and the empowerment of women, thirty years of armed conflict have resulted in the deaths of more than two million civilians and more than one million women are believed to have been raped.
Anne-Marie Lurhakumnira Nabintu recounts what happened when the M23 took control of Goma at the end of January.
‘We really had to save lives’
"First, before leaving, we experienced a whole week of destabilization where we lacked water, electricity, there was a form of instability and social psychosis. We were asked to evacuate our homes and a few kilometers from the airport, we were forced to turn back. There, the heavy gunfire started and it was really desperate. There were missiles that were starting to go from Congo to Rwanda and from Rwanda to Congo," she explains.
“We really had to save lives. That's when we started our race. Women, pregnant women, children, old people, sick people, we all had to walk and not just walk but run. For 22 years I have been working in humanitarian work assisting displaced people, helping refugees, people with problems, women with their families, that day I could not imagine that I was the one who needed to protect my children.”
Nabintu was with other UN families: “There were 2,027 of us under the bombs and gunfire, and that day I experienced the experience of someone who needs help. In my professional career, I was in charge of psychosocial support. I am a stress counselor and I thought I could manage my stress. But that day, I felt that stress is natural and that we cannot really go beyond the human sensation.”
Faced with this situation, she said to herself that as the security focal point of her office, she had to take care of the safety of her colleagues and their families, including children.
Nabintu experienced 48 particularly intense and extremely frightening hours: "First, the shooting. And then all these killings, all the atrocities that were already happening before the rebels arrived in Goma."
"In the past, I always played the role of someone who came to help. But here I was in a situation where I myself felt like a victim."
Ensuring the protection of women
in charge of projects to ensure the safety of women in one of the most unstable regions of the world.
“The most pressing needs of women in Goma were first of all humanitarian protection. When we talk about saving lives, of course, we talk about water, food, blankets. But in my experience, I think we must first ensure protection, because someone who is not protected, even if you give them water, a blanket, it is difficult.”
According to her, what Congolese women living in this part of the country fear most is gender-based violence, especially mass rape.
“The second thing is the survival of families, access to livelihoods. How to protect ourselves and our daughters from violence, and especially mass rape, because it has become a habit in conflicts to use women’s bodies to scare communities. The third thing women fear is inter-ethnic conflict. In my experience, the first thing women get involved in is to see how to rebuild ties between different communities to live in peace.”
In her role with UN Women in Goma, the first thing Nabintu sought to do was "first to strengthen women in leadership and also to give them some tools for the psychosocial care of their peers".
She says she is very proud of all the people she has been able to help get back on their feet emotionally and personally.
‘We went into the listening room where she told me her story’
She talks about a woman she met in the Mugunga displaced persons camp: "In her village, this woman was raped by armed groups, she was raped in front of her husband. Her husband decided to leave and abandoned her with 6 children."
As part of a women's empowerment programme, a community centre had been set up in the displaced persons camp in Mugunga. During a group counselling session, Anne-Marie sees this woman who is isolated from others, who does not speak and who covers herself.
“She was a Muslim, but the way she covered her head was a bit unusual. When we finished the session, I asked this lady to come closer. She said, ‘I can’t’. I said to her, ‘Why, ma’am?’ ‘Because I can’t. The others are clean, but I’m very dirty.’ I said to her, ‘And yet your clothes are clean.’ And she repeated, ‘I can’t.’ And then I said to her, ‘But can you talk to me?’ She replied, ‘I really needed it, the way you were talking there, with the others.’ I pulled her towards me. We went into the listening room where she told me her story.”
"She had nowhere to live and didn't even have tarpaulins to make her tent. I took her to the head of the National Council for Refugees. They said, 'We'll build her a tent.'"
Even though UN Women does not provide individual support, Nabintu thought that this woman needed individual support. A week later, she went to her hut.
"She was very happy because she could put her children to sleep. We talked. After five support sessions, she got back on her feet. She started participating with the other women in the community center, with our partner "Ligue de la solidarité congolaise" where there were income-generating trade activities, leadership training, and financial education so they could access credit. She started participating."
Nabintu continued to follow her. “A year later, she applied to be a member of the management committee of the multipurpose community centre and today, she is the vice-president. But during her journey, there were other attacks in Mugunga, she was again the victim of a second rape. I went to visit her. She had relapsed. I took care of her again and she got back up and continues to help other women. I am very proud of her.”
-0- PANA MA 9March2025
