A doctor, authorities, and the UN reported rapes of Congolese women and children during the large deportation of Angolan migrant workers into the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
According to UN, Angola has deported hundreds of people in recent months, echoing previous purges over the last 12 years.
According to the IOM, 12,000 migrants traveled via a single border crossing in Kamako, Congo, in the preceding six months.
“Girls and women are seized wherever they are, without the necessities, detained and then separated from their children and spouses, subjected to cruel and humiliating treatment, and occasionally raped,” according to the poll.
Since the study did not establish culpability, multiple partner organizations had to double-check its accuracy before releasing it. Congolese and Angolan authorities are being accused by local medics.
Expulsions have escalated in the previous two weeks, but Angola’s migration agency spokeswoman Simo Milagres disputes rape and other abuse allegations.
“That’s incorrect,” he said. I can guarantee you that there is no “institutional mentality” in favor of migrant violence.
The UN report does not mention any examples of abuse. A Kamako doctor who treats victims of sexual assault reported an all-time high of 122 rapes to local clinics.
He described the women and girls forced to escape Angola as “weak” because they had “no means of sustenance” and were prone to abuse. He said that gang rape cases present medical challenges.
According to clinic patients, at least 14 rapes were perpetrated by Angolan security officials. He accused Congolese residents of a slew of crimes.
According to a Congolese immigration officer, authorities on both sides of the border had dealt the dozens of rapes.
The governor of the Kasai province of southern Congo, Dieudonne Pieme Tutokot, is looking into rape claims.
For decades, thousands of people have traveled from Congo’s destitute south to Angola’s diamond-rich Lunda Norde area. According to UN data, 20% of deported employees had valid work licenses.
IOM Congo mission leader Fabien Sambussy described Kamako as an “open-air migrant camp,”
“The Congolese end up ruling whole areas in Angola, and the Angolans worry that they will vanish,” said Abbé Trudon Keshilemba, leader of the Kamako civil society alliance.
Milagres, the spokesman for Angola’s migration agency, said the crackdown on illicit labor was part of a larger effort to encourage legal migration via an online visa application procedure.
Every few years, Angola sends hundreds of people to Congo. In 2018, 330,000 people were laid off. Over a two-month period in 2010, the UN stated that over 650 Angolan exiles were sexually abused.
“We’re witnessing this but can’t do anything because of resources,” stated the Congolese immigration official.
