BULENGO; what it costs to be displaced

One would believe oneself to be nowhere, in the void, in nothingness, one would believe oneself to be in an infinity devoid of humanity. One would think oneself in an amplified denial, in a legitimized indifference, in a tolerance of nonsense. Well, we are not far from there.

Feb 20, 2023 Bulengo camp

We are in Bulengo, more or less 15 km from the city of Goma. A camp for displaced persons has been set up here. Like the other camps located in the north in the Kibati group, this one also houses displaced populations fleeing the clashes between the M23 rebels and the loyalist army. Here, there are even more of them, crammed into their tanks, lost on a perimeter where they are forced to cohabit with methane gas. In the inter-agency meetings in which AGIR RDC participates, there is talk of 80,000 people here. There are many needs, but especially the basic ones. We have about 50 toilet doors for about 100,000 people. So one toilet for every 2,000 people? Very alarming.

In difficult situations, courageous attitudes, they say. But here, we notice more than courage, more than self-sacrifice, more than creativity. Unfortunately, it is humanly dramatic, pathetic. Many people cannot line up in front of the toilet doors. They find it easy to defecate in the open. But there is a question of dignity. They can't do it in front of everyone, they need hidden places. However, there are none, they avoid going to uninhabited areas for fear of ending up in gas zones, two people have already been asphyxiated here. Two people have already been asphyxiated here. So, we have to defecate at night, out of sight. But how do we manage the needs so that they are only felt at night? This is the question. And the answer to the question is challenging. Women embody dignity here, they are the first to protect their images. Their physical condition also makes them very vulnerable in such a situation. But in their impulse to survive, they use a technique, deeply revealing and questioning, to face this challenge. Most of the women here tie a rope to their hallux (big toe) all day to block the need to go to the bathroom.

Rachel DAMASEME, 28 years old, shared with us her belief in this method: "I came from KALENGA in the MASISI territory, when I arrived here at the camp, I noticed that there were no sanitary facilities protecting my dignity, so I was forced to go far into the forest to relieve myself, So after two days here in the camp I learned about the method of tying the hallux (the big toe) to restrain the need to go to the toilet and since then it works, I go to the toilet only at night and there I do not need to go very far, because at least the darkness hides my dignity. "

It is unimaginable to see, difficult to accept. Women in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, reduced to techniques that even the Middle Ages would not have tolerated. Techniques that no medical expert would give a visa to because of the health consequences that it can cause. But for these women abandoned to their sad fate, the technique works, and they can't abandon it without substituting it with a decent solution. This reveals the world's indifference to the suffering of vulnerable populations today in the camps for displaced persons in the eastern DRC, it also reveals the strong inequalities in which populations in distress are cared for depending on whether they are from this or that region of the world, it reveals what the lack of humanity is capable of in a world that today prides itself on international solidarity masked by the inaction of powerful states and international mechanisms.

Everywhere in the world, war comes with its consequences, which in turn generate resilience efforts, but these techniques that reduce humans to the age of polished stone cannot be called resilient. These populations that have been battered for more than 30 years need at least careful protection when they find themselves in situations of displacement that accentuate their vulnerability. Humanity should no longer tolerate this, for any population in distress. Equality in the treatment of displaced persons and refugees, regardless of where they come from, should be a sacrosanct principle for humanitarian actors and donors from all corners of the world.

An emergency latrine in Bulengo camp (Feb 20, 2023)

It is our duty to ensure that tonight in Bulengo, when these women untie the rope from their hallux, they will never put it back on again because at least the living conditions of tomorrow will no longer require it. It is our duty to no longer tolerate seeing this image. It is our responsibility, all of us, to remind the world that this is unacceptable and that it must stop.