They raped her one by one, while the two others watched the road.īruised and in shock after the gang rape, Giselle somehow got back on her feet to walk the rest of the way. They held a gun to her head so she would not make a sound during the assault. That is when she was grabbed by three armed men, who forced her to undress. Two months ago, as she was fetching water along with five other women, Giselle fell behind because she was walking slowly with the heavy jugs. Giselle and her eight young siblings were among the few who survived, which meant that she would have to step up and care for them. Then, one night in 2018, rebels raided their village, killing almost everyone, including her father. Giselle says that her mother, after giving birth to her youngest child, lost her sanity and disappeared.

She is wearing an off-white shirt, a long skirt, and a pair of plastic slippers with the letters “VIP” printed on them. The sunset is hauntingly beautiful when I meet Giselle, a tall 16-year-old girl with very short hair. In 1997, that regime was overthrown by opposition forces led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila, in the wake of a military invasion by Rwandan forces that sparked the First Congo War and further conflicts. The dictatorship led by Lumumba’s successor, Mobutu Sese Seko, lasted for 30 years, with support from the governments of the United States and France. The assassination of Patrice Lumumba in 1961-the first democratically elected prime minister of Congo-took away the possibility of forming a national central government that could work in the interest of the Congolese people and perhaps could have prevented decades of conflict in the country. But that did not mark the end of conflict in the country, which has seen years of chaos, coups, and insurgencies. In 1960, following protests and an eventual uprising led by the Congolese people, the country gained its independence. It was considered the personal dominion of King Leopold II of Belgium, becoming a Belgian colony in 1908. The land that is today part of DRC was colonized for its natural resources by the Belgian monarchy and called the Congo Free State.

By the inevitable crack