Criminal gangs " kidnapped for ransom at least 170 people near Virunga National Park ", a natural and tourist gem in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, between April 2017 and March 2020, according to a report released Thursday, July 30. by Human Rights Watch (HRW). “ Small groups armed with rifles and machetes have beaten, tortured and murdered hostages, raping the women and girls, who make up more than half of them, while using threats to extort money from them. their families, ”wrote this American organization for the defense of human rights.
The exact number of those abducted, and those who were raped, " is very likely higher, " the organization said. The report also indicates that " the victims and families who requested the assistance of the police said that the latter did nothing to find those responsible " for these acts.
From December 2019 to the end of June 2020, HRW claims to have interviewed 37 people about the kidnappings, including 28 survivors of sexual violence. In most of the documented incidents " abducted women and girls were routinely and regularly raped, several times a day, and sometimes by several men, " according to HRW.
Recurring kidnappings
According to the report, the ransoms paid range from " $ 200 to $ 600 per hostage ." In the DRC, two-thirds of some 80 million people live on less than two dollars a day. Kidnappings with ransom demand are recurrent in the provinces of North and South Kivu (east). On July 17, a Médecins Sans Frontières humanitarian was released after being held hostage for 18 days in South Kivu by an unidentified armed group.
Located on the border with Rwanda and Uganda, the Virunga park covers 7,800 km2 in the province of North Kivu, stronghold of several militias and armed groups of varying importance and which engage in all trafficking. The park was closed to tourism between May 2018 and early 2019 after the death of an eco-guard and the kidnapping of two British tourists on May 11, 2018 in an ambush by armed men. The two hostages were released two days later.