•  johannesburg
• Tuesday, May 22, 2012
• Inter Press Service

The Angolan government is being urged to carry out a thorough and independent investigation into allegations of sexual and physical abuse by its security forces against Congolese migrants.

In a 50-page report released on Monday, May 21, entitled 'If You Come back We Will Kill You', New York-based lobby group Human Rights Watch (HRW) documents chilling testimonies of men and women who entered Angola illegally to work.

Many claim that they were subjected to various forms of torture, beatings and gang rape while being held in custody in Angola before being deported back to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Angola shares a northern border with the DRC.

Migrants interviewed by HRW researchers between 2009 and 2011 told of how they were rounded up from diamond mines, markets and villages across northern Angola by a combination of border police, immigration officials and soldiers. They were then tied up, beaten, whipped with chains and scorched by hot knives.

Women, many pregnant or with young children and babies, described being thrown into cramped prison cells, which were packed with as many as 100 or even 150 other people. The women were forced to sit in their own urine and excrement and only had access to food and water if they had sex with the security guards.

'In prison they beat us when we refused to have sex with them and they kicked us with their boots in the belly,' recounted one 30-year-old woman, who was held in Condueji prison in Dundo, Lunda Norte province, which borders the DRC.

'They came in groups of 20 or 30 to ask for girls. We were 147 women in a cell and had nothing to eat, nothing to wash ourselves with, we were not able to sleep,' she added. HRW noted that children often witnessed sexual abuse against their mothers and other female inmates.

One woman, aged 27, also held at Condueji, told HRW researchers: 'We were 73 women and 27 children in the cell. They disturbed us all the time to have sex with us. They had different uniforms, khaki and green, blue and black. 'I finally accepted to have sex with a soldier in a khaki uniform because of the hunger. He gave me biscuits but I hurt a lot from the rape.'

Claims that Angolan security services are abusing Congolese migrants — many of whom cross the border to work in the vast open-pit diamond mines — are not new, however. Nor are the mass deportations. Deportations began in 2003 just after the end of Angola’s decades of war (1961 to 2002), when it began tightening its borders and reinforcing national security. However, the deportations have steadily increased against a backdrop of deteriorating bilateral relations between the once-close allies.

© Inter Press Service (2012) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

Where next?

Advertisement