Aobangeze Bwangu’s Story, Democratic Republic of Congo
Photo by G. Ramazani/2014.
Aobangeze Bwangu is 43 years old and lives in the displacement site of Mugunga 3 close to the town of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. He currently lives with 3 of his children. Originating from the territory of Rutshuru, he has been a victim of the horrors of war and armed conflict in North Kivu for more than 20 years. He has been forced to flee many times since 2004. He lost two wives and three children during the conflict. His first wife was killed when she was 8 months pregnant. He remarried but his second wife died after being raped and abused while their baby was only 1 month old. She died after receiving medical care for nearly six months at Heal Africa hospital in Goma.
After the death of his second wife, Aobangeze returned home to Rutshuru. In 2012, he was again forced to flee when this territory was affected by the conflict between the M23 rebel group and the Congolese army. Last April, he lost two of his daughters. “I witnessed very difficult and terrible situations during those armed conflict. Soldiers came home at night, they hit my wife when she was pregnant and they stabbed my son in the chest. They died. After that, they caught me and took me to a small nearby village where they tortured me in a horrible way. They tore my nails with nails, and they gagged me. I suffered a lot. After my release from these bandits by the governmental forces, I fled with the rest of the kids. I could not go bury my wife and my other son.”
“When I remarried, I thought things would change but I lived the same nightmare. I wonder if these conflicts are born just to hurt me. I live in sadness and the worse is that I cannot do anything to feed the rest of my family there. I am a pastor in a church here in the camp and I have faith that one day everything will be fine and that I will live in peace with my family. I need to be assisted and all I want is that these armed conflicts end.”
