Babies, Bombs, and Unbreakable Hope: Voices from Banyamulenge Women

Life continues in the midst of the war situation. You can’t stop life continuing. Women are still having babies. New life is continuing to emerge. There is much suffering, but there is also new life, deep joy and appreciation in the dark moments.

It has been a very difficult time for the Banyamulenge with bombings of the civilian population on Saturday and Monday in the early hours of the morning. Then the DRC president’s drones bombed the villages of Mikenke and Rwitsankuku. Then on Thursday, with two Sukhoi planes flying over Minembwe several times. Then Friday, a fighter jet bombed the Internal Displacement Camp of Mikenke again.

It is unconscionable that our president is sending his Sukhoi drones to bomb the displaced Banyamulenge civilians, a people who have been displaced since 2019.

The DRC president has a coalition with the president of Burundi, President Évariste Ndayishimiye, and mercenaries from Europe and South America, and the Genocidaires of the Rwandan Tutsi population - the FDLR, and the hundred plus rebel groups that were assimilated into the government military force called Wazalendo. All territories in South Kivu province are calling M23 for help because our own government is coming against this civilian population with all these forces to kill us.

In the middle of this hopelessness – wailing, chaos, desperation – if you sit with us in this darkness, you can begin to see through it, see through the darkness. You can see the human beings, the women having fled the camp, hiding in the bush, the pregnant women having babies, adolescent girls getting their first period. You can see them foraging for food, sitting around the fires they’ve made to feed their families the food that they’ve gathered. 

The Burundian government forces have stopped all medicine and other aid from coming to our remote area to help the population. No necessities are able to get to our area. No access.

This is not normal. War is supposed to be between military forces, not military against civilian populations.

I talk with women everyday in that isolated part of the earth. You would think the big fear would be the drones dropping the bombs on the people. But what they are saying is: “we are going to die. Better to die instantly by the bombs then by the rape and mutilation of the rebel soldiers whose hatred lets them see us as disposable; things they can use and abuse and throw away.”

We continue. We see new Congo. Every day we get up and do what we are supposed to do. You don’t just sit to die. You look for food, you wash your baby, you love your husband. Life is happening. People are still sharing, helping one another, all while those who want to kill us continue to conspire against us.

Our staff is there, among this population. The teachers among the families of the IDP camp. The trainers and support persons of the programs among the beneficiaries they are serving. No one has been able to travel from that remote area for 18 months. The 30 Mama Shujaa staff are a strength to the population, our programs bringing them together around activities that speak to a future that we are determined to bring in.

It is your love and support and generosity that makes it all possible, bringing a candle, a little light in the darkness to make it all possible. It is our privilege to be your ambassadors, to be among this population, my people, my heart.

This is where Hero Women Rising becomes very strong and visible. In this darkness we bring a little light of hope. We hear the voice of babies born, students from the school in the IDP camp requesting uniforms. Girls requesting pads. You see women in the kitchen saying, I need seeds to plant. I need salt for the food I’ve gathered.

Many things we see and hear, and Hero Women Rising is the connector of these dear hearts to your dear hearts. It seems all the world is in turbulence, and it is our combined resilience that together, we hold tight, the tomorrow we envision.