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UNHCR / DRC LOST CHILDREN
STORY: UNHCR / DRC LOST CHILDREN
TRT: 02:06
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNHCR ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: KISWAHILI / NATS
DATELINE: 17-20 JANUARY 2018, TANGANYIKA PROVINCE, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
17-20 JANUARY 2018, TANGANYIKA PROVINCE, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
1. Wide shot, child standing in the rain in displacement site
2. Wide shot, displaced women
3. Close up, displaced woman
4. Med shot, mothers sitting inside communal hut
5. Close up, mothers
6. SOUNDBITE (Kiswahili) Augustine Mwamba Feza, Displaced Congolese mother:
“The rebels come into our villages. They take our children and disappear with them.”
7. Wide shot, displaced mothers sitting on ground of communal hut
8. Close up, mother holding head
9. SOUNDBITE (Kiswahili) Augustine Mwamba Feza, Displaced Congolese mother:
“When they take our children, they rape the girls and cut them in small pieces with machetes. There’s no hope. I will never see my daughter again.”
10. Med shot, displaced women
11. SOUNDBITE (Kiswahili) Elizabeth Majuma Ngoy, Displaced Congolese mother:
“They took my children and disappeared. I heard them screaming: “Mama, mama we are dying!” and I realized they had kidnapped them.”
12. Close up, Elizabeth
13. SOUNDBITE (Kiswahili) Elizabeth Majuma Ngoy, Displaced Congolese mother:
“I am in pain; my heart is hurting. I can’t sleep. My body is in pain. Life is hopeless. Who will get my children back for me?”
14. Close up, Ndiba’s face
15. Wide shot, Ndiba and her daughter sitting in front of shelter
16. Med shot, Ndiba and her daughter sitting in front of shelter
17. SOUNDBITE (Kiswahili) Ndiba Kaité, Displaced Congolese mother:
“When I found them, they were in a terrible state. They were so thin. Their feet were wounded. Their color had changed. Their eyes were filled with sadness. But the day I found my children, I was happy.”
18. Med shot, displaced women
19. Close up, displaced woman
20. SOUNDBITE (Kiswahili) Elizabeth Majuma Ngoy, Displaced Congolese mother:
“The rebels are still there. There is still fighting going on even today. Yesterday they killed people again, just yesterday in my village.”
21. Close up, displaced mother
22. SOUNDBITE (Kiswahili) Augustine Mwamba Feza, Displaced Congolese mother:
“We are weak. We are worried. We keep thinking about our children. If they kidnap your six-year-old, how can you have peace?”
23. Med shot, child being breastfed
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said thousands of children are being reported missing as the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) displacement crisis deepens. Many say their children have disappeared, kidnapped by the militias who attacked their villages. But, the exact number of Congo’s lost children is unknown.
SOUNDBITE (Kiswahili) Augustine Mwamba Feza, Displaced Congolese mother:
“The rebels come into our villages. They take our children and disappear with them.”
UNHCR said a devastating humanitarian crisis is quietly unfolding in the eastern Province of Tanganyika in the DRC where years of ethnic fighting between various ethnic groups and the Army, has forced hundreds of thousands to abandon their homes.
Agustine’s daughter was taken one year ago.
SOUNDBITE (Kiswahili) Augustine Mwamba Feza, Displaced Congolese mother:
“When they take our children, they rape the girls and cut them in small pieces with machetes. There’s no hope. I will never see my daughter again.”
Many of those fleeing the fighting and rebel attacks have sought refuge in squalid, overcrowded displacement sites near the city of Kalemie, the capital of Tanganyika Province.
Elizabeth said she lost two daughters.
SOUNDBITE (Kiswahili) Elizabeth Majuma Ngoy, Displaced Congolese mother:
“They took my children and disappeared. I heard them screaming: “Mama, mama we are dying!” and I realized they had kidnapped them.”
She spent an entire year looking for them without success. The physical and emotional toll has been unbearable.
SOUNDBITE (Kiswahili) Elizabeth Majuma Ngoy, Displaced Congolese mother:
“I am in pain; my heart is hurting. I can’t sleep. My body is in pain. Life is hopeless. Who will get my children back for me?”
Ndiba was lucky. Her children were captured by militias and held for months before they made it home with the help of humanitarian agencies.
She said she was happy to find her children because most of those who were abducted, never come back.
SOUNDBITE (Kiswahili) Ndiba Kaité, Displaced Congolese mother:
“When I found them, they were in a terrible state. They were so thin. Their feet were wounded. Their color had changed. Their eyes were filled with sadness. But the day I found my children, I was happy.”
The ongoing violence is making these mothers desperate to find their young.
SOUNDBITE (Kiswahili) Elizabeth Majuma Ngoy, Displaced Congolese mother:
“The rebels are still there. There is still fighting going on even today. Yesterday they killed people again, just yesterday in my village.”
While the number of the DRC’s lost children is unknown, but their mothers continue to search.
SOUNDBITE (Kiswahili) Elizabeth Majuma Ngoy, Displaced Congolese mother:
“The rebels are still there. There is still fighting going on even today. Yesterday they killed people again, just yesterday in my village.”
UNHCR said, along with its partners, it is helping identify unaccompanied and separated children, to ensure they are protected and reunified with their parents.
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