Beyond the insecurity caused to the presence of the FDLR in eastern DR Congo are human rights abuses that receive far less attention, particularly the violence suffered by women and girls living in areas controlled by the Kinshasa backed militia.

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Survivors who have since returned to Rwanda describe rape, forced abortions, drug use, forced recruitment, sexual slavery and death threats as part of daily life in the jungles, where armed men often serve as both the authorities and the perpetrators.

"The one with a gun has the final word,” Ineza, a survivor, said, describing a system in which commanders determine what security and justice mean in areas under their control.

Ineza, not her real name, is 36. She left Rwanda with her parents when she was four and settled in Masisi Territory, North Kivu province. Her father died shortly after the family arrived there.

She describes herself as someone who "grew up in FDLR”, saying she knew the militia even before it operated under the FDLR name.

She returned to Rwanda with three children whose fathers she does not know. She said she was first raped at the age of 12 and spent much of her childhood and youth trapped in the same cycle of sexual violence.

"Growing up, we found that the people around us were FDLR fighters, then it was called PALIR,” she said.

"We could attend primary schools set up by the FDLR. In the morning we would go to class, and around 11:30am we would go outside for shooting training. After the session, we would head home, and on the way, they would rape us.”

Ineza said her first known perpetrator was a soldier known as Kimasa, who she said held the rank of soldat de première classe (Private first class) in the militia.

"I was first raped by Kimasa when I was 12. I heard he was from Ruhengeri, but I do not know exactly where,” she recalled.

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What began when she was a child became a pattern of abuse shared by other girls around her. With the armed group also controlling the areas where they lived, she said there was nowhere to report the abuse.

"I told my mother about it, but she could not do anything about it,” Ineza said, before she recalled one of the most shocking scenes of her life.

"One day Kimasa came to pick me up from home. When my mother tried to ask where they were taking me, he raped me in front of her. The man who had escorted him, called Singiranumwe, also raped my mother as I watched.”

"We had no one to run to because the authority in those areas, which were much like camps because we could move anytime, was the FDLR. They were the perpetrators, so there was nothing like a right to claim.”

Ineza and her mother later moved to Bukavu city in South Kivu province, hoping to escape the abuse. But they settled near another FDLR military camp.

Within days, she said, a colonel known as Rubura sent soldiers to take her to him, where she was raped again.

The abuse continued and she got pregnant at 14. She later miscarried a three-month pregnancy after repeated sexual assaults by different soldiers.

"I almost died when I had the miscarriage of a three-month pregnancy, but luckily I survived,” she said.

She was also forced into the militia alongside other children. At one point, she thought she could have some protection if she joined the militia as a fighter. It did not.

"They did not stop raping us. Whoever wanted you could send for you and sleep with you at any time, and you could not report anywhere,” she said.

Her daily life included domestic work, searching for food and serving the men at night.

"Our daily work in the military camp included doing house chores and going out to steal food or they called it 'refuelling.' If you returned without food, the rule was that you would receive 30 strokes of the cane,” she said.

"When we got back, we cooked, and at night we were their wives. Whoever picked you, you spent the night in his bed.”

Ineza recalled losing two friends, whom she said were shot dead after refusing to sleep with militiamen.

She also described being forced to use drugs, including cannabis.

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After years in that life, one man offered to marry her as a way of protecting her from other soldiers.

"He told me that to save me from those men, he would marry me, and we got married in church,” she recalled.

The marriage gave her a short period of peace, but it did not end the abuse. Commanders would send her husband on fighting missions and continue to rape her.

After about a year and a half, she said, her husband sold her to a Congolese man.

"A Congolese man called Kimoto came to our place. My husband told me to go with him to pick up some things,” she said.

"When we reached his place, he told me he had paid $10 to my husband and therefore had full rights to use me as he wanted. He raped me repeatedly.”

She said her husband would return every month demanding more money and threatening to take her away and kill her if Kimoto did not pay.

Kimoto later turned her into a source of income, sending her to other Congolese men for money to support them both.

She decided to return to the FDLR as a fighter, where she continued to suffer sexual violence there but was not beaten in the same way she had been by the Congolese men.

"In that cycle, I had three children from the Congolese men, but I could not know who their fathers were,” she said.

She left the children with her mother and returned to the militia. She later escaped and reunited with her children.

She is now at Mutobo Demobilisation Centre in Musanze District, where she and other women are receiving therapy under a programme introduced after the centre learned about the experiences and difficulties women continued to face after leaving armed groups.

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The ideological trap

Uwizeye, also not her real name, is 37. She lived a similar life as Ineza in the Congolese jungles and is also undergoing therapy at Mutobo.

She said many women are trapped by the FDLR because years of fear have convinced many women and families that, despite the abuses, remaining with the militia is safer than leaving.

"We were raised to believe that outside the jungles lives our enemy, a Tutsi, who can kill us at any time if they catch us, and that the FDLR are our only protectors,” she said.

"As Rwandans in the jungle, we usually made sure to live where the FDLR was present so that they could fight for us when fighting erupted in the area. The civilians simply followed them.

"We lived in that fear that if you went away, the Tutsi would kill you. So, we decided to stay and die in the arms of our fellows instead of being killed by a Tutsi.”

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Uwizeye said the physical distance between the jungles and ordinary communities also makes escape difficult.

Women trying to leave, she said, risk encountering other armed FDLR members along the way and facing the same violence.

She further said women and children are mostly kept close to militia positions because commanders consider they use them as sheilds during attacks.

"It is different when they find soldiers because they immediately fight them. So, the FDLR keeps women and children as a form of security during fighting. If they find out that you are planning to leave, you are immediately killed.”

Uwizeye said sexual violence is largely committed by senior commanders, whom she described as men whose families live outside DR Congo.

"You cannot file a complaint to anyone because the people committing these acts are the ones in charge of the population. They own the population,” she said.

"These are men whose wives and children live have normal lifestyles abroad. Their families are here in Rwanda or elsewhere in the world, so they have no interest in marrying girls in the jungle. They use them for their sexual desires whenever they want.”

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Forced abortions and other forms of abuse

Unlike Ineza, who has three children whose fathers are unknown to her, Uwizeye said she never had a child because she was repeatedly forced to terminate pregnancies.

She said she was also used for spying and drug dealing.

"I was used as a spy. They could send me to places where they heard the enemy, meaning the Tutsi, could be, so I would infiltrate the area disguised as a Congolese person and gather information for them,” she said.

She also described being sent to exchange cannabis for guns and ammunition.

"I could be given cannabis to give to FARDC in exchange for guns and bullets. There was a way the guns were transported in spare parts so that no one could recognise that you were carrying guns,” she said.

"I travelled long distances to fulfil my responsibilities between the FDLR and FARDC.”

Uwizeye said she was forced to undergo abortions whenever she got pregnant.

"Whenever I became pregnant, they gave me abortion pills, saying there was no way I could carry out my work if I was pregnant,” she said.

She added that some women died during abortions while others suffered complications.

The violence, she said, was often mixed with a dependence on armed men for basic survival.

"The fighters would protect us from other enemies. For example, whenever we were sent to steal food for the survival of the militia, we could go with an armed FDLR member and they would protect us. But they could use you whenever they wanted. If he wanted to rape you, he would do it at any time.”

"In the past, one could find a way to pass time in Congolese communities and live a normal life before returning to the camps when necessary. But now that insecurity is at its peak in the FDLR-controlled areas, the communities misled by the militia have moved even deeper into the jungles, making it easier for such horrible acts to continue.”

She said the violence also affects women through other Congolese militias affiliated with the FDLR, as well as civilians who commit abuses without facing consequences because of limited governance in the areas.

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Other women at Mutobo told The New Times that girls are also being kidnapped by local militias, taken from their homes and held in the jungles for sexual abuse.

Uwase, 26, not her real name, suffered the same abuse at the hands of militiamen. She was abducted several times from her home in Mweso, Masisi Territory.

She said she was first abducted in 2015 together with a friend. Four masked men took them away and forced them to walk all day before they crossed a river into an area she could not identify.

She said she did not recognise the militia responsible, including the uniform its members wore.

Uwase later escaped while pregnant, only to be abducted again from her home while carrying the pregnancy. She eventually gave birth to her child under harsh conditions.

"When the memories come back, I just go silent and cannot talk to anyone, including my family, because I think they would not understand,” she said.

"Even when I try to forget about it, I look at my child and remember that I have no idea who the father is.”

Mutobo expands support for survivors

The testimonies have prompted Rwanda Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission to introduce therapy for women and girls who experienced sexual violence and other abuses while associated with armed groups.

Valerie Nyirahabineza, the commission's chairperson, told The New Times that the programme was created after staff learned more about what the women had endured and the effects on their lives and children.

"We are taking on this initiative for the first time to give these women and girls the attention they need after learning about what they go through in the jungles,” Nyirahabineza said.

"They are individuals associated with armed groups, a category that is within our mandate. After hearing several testimonies from women who endured such abuse, and learning about the consequences for them and their children, we decided to seek them out.”

The officials said some survivors had lost hope and were struggling with the consequences of abuse years after leaving the armed groups.

"We observed that they had lost hope and were in despair. Life had become bitter for them,” she said.

"Many children were born from this abuse, and when they ask who their fathers are, it often creates friction between those children and the mothers who suffered the abuse.”

She said the commission works with Ruhengeri Hospital and Gataraga Health Centre, with whom they have formal agreements, to ensure the survivors receive the necessary medical care and support.

"We are already seeing positive results,” Nyirahabineza said, noting that more survivors are willing to open about their ordeal and seek psychosocial support.