Women of Kivu standing up to war

This book is my story. It is also the story of a women in Kivu who were, at one point in time, victims of atrocities, but who decided to stand strong, while the world turned a blind eye to their tragedy, the most devastating since the Second World War, with at least 6 million deaths.

As I speak to you, a few kilometers from here, fighting is still raging. I know that women will once again be targeted by armed groups. This has been our reality for the past 30 years.

20 years ago, we created a women's collective. Only Congolese women. Women in the field. For 20 years, this group has been helping victims on a medical, sometimes surgical, psychological, family, legal, and professional level. With few resources, we have saved 18,000 women.

For 20 years, we have also been carrying the voices of women in our region. We document abuse. We inform international bodies. We reject the systematic impunity of rape perpetrators. We are working for the implementation of a United Nations resolution that puts women at the heart of the peace processes. Where they should be, to invent something else, since everything has failed so far.

I've testified before the United Nations Security Council in New York, and before so many other bodies in so many countries around the globe, that our collective is now recognized as an expert on these issues. The big deal is that it's like we are not being heard.

I, like other activists, know the price of our commitment. The acts of violence targeting us, or worse, our families, our children, have not stopped us. And it will not stop us until peace is achieved. Another will soon take my place at the head of this collective, that's for sure.

That's what this book is all about. That and the great geopolitics, the manna and damnation that are the minerals that abound in our subsoils, minerals that you have in your phones. The crazy international mechanics, and the story of my sisters, like those around me. My story too, as one of them.

I'd like to thank you for giving me your attention, as I'd like to thank the associations that support us from all over and will help promote this book.

Thank you for your future work on this book, which is so important to me and to us.