Feza, 17-years-old from Uvira, south of Bukavu, has just arrived at a clinic in Goma, set-up by Doctors on Call for Service (DOCS) for rape victims. She was held hostage by an armed militia for months after witnessing her parents’ murder. She is six months pregnant.

“We were at home in the evening and the enemy arrived. They came into the house. They ordered my father to sleep with me. My father said “no”, so they killed him before my eyes. They told my older brother to sleep with my mother. My mother refused. They killed her.

They took me and my brother out of the house and down the lane. When the lane split in two, they took him one way and me the other. We arrived in the forest and three men raped me.

They kept me there in the forest. I was in pain. I was watched all the time for about three months. One day, when I felt a bit better, I decided to run for it. But they caught me and took me back and hit me very hard. I stayed, but I knew that one day I would escape.”

Among the other women in the forest, Feza knew five from her own area. But they didn’t talk. “The men would think we were plotting and would kill us”

Some women seemed happy to be there. “I said – better to die than to stay here. I’ve seen my parents killed in front of my eyes. You can go home, and see your families, but not me.”

They ordered my father to sleep with me. My father said “no”, so they killed him before my eyes
Feza, 17 years old

“I kept my face down all the time. When you’re a woman you have to put up with whatever they want. If you resist they kill you. I know they will have killed my brother, because they don’t keep men alive.I was their prisoner in the forest.

There was one woman who was pregnant… when it came to her time to give birth, a man stuck his hand in and pulled the baby out. The baby died and so did the mother.

One day, a Friday, the militias weren’t there, and my heart said ‘get up and go!’ I thought I should leave my shoes, so they would think I was still there. I took just this dress that I’m wearing now and ran and ran.”