HEAL Africa, support to justice: 24 other judgements passed, regarding
sexual violence cases
On November 18, 2022, the verdict falls: 18 judgments to sentences ranging from 10 to 20
years of penal servitude and payment of fines, 3 judgments of acquittal, 3 files referred to the
ordinary roll and one file renewed because of judgment already rendered. This is the verdict
of the 25 cases of sexual violence lined up in the dockets during the mobile courts of the
Butembo Garrison Military Tribunal in the rural municipality of Lubero, from 09 to 18
November 2022.
These hearings come in response to the request for support addressed to HEAL Africa by the
Butembo Garrison Military Tribunal that became officially autonomous starting 16 July 2022.
Initially scheduled from 17 to 26 August 2022, these mobile court activities were postponed
due to the mass escape of detainees incarcerated at Kakwangura Central Prison (Butembo), on
10 August 2022.
It is within the framework of the implementation of the project for the prevention and
response to gender-based violence (PRVBG – projet de Prévention et de Réponse aux
Violences Basées sur le Genre), a project of the Social Funds of the Democratic Republic of
Congo executed by HEAL Africa with support from the World Bank that the 25 cases of
GBV pending before the military court of Butembo were judged, and that victims (survivors)
found compensation for the damage suffered.
Educating the community to fight GBV
The holding of public hearings in the communities where the offences were committed
responds to the idea of bringing justice closer to litigants. “As a witness to the commission of
the facts, it is very important that the community also witnesses the judgment of the
executioners,” asserted Jacques Batenga, project manager at HEAL Africa.
In the current context of armed conflicts in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of
Congo, violence has reached its highest point. More than ever, rape is a weapon of mass
destruction. “Women are at the center of their home economy in rural DRC. Raped, a woman
loses her honor, her dignity. She is no longer able to work for her home, her family, her
community. Rape thus places her in a state of inactivity, of unproductivity. At this level, it is
the community that pays the price,” always says Dr. Jonathan M. Lusi, co-founder of HEAL
Africa.
It therefore becomes imperative that the community takes ownership of the fight to eradicate
rape and all other forms of gender-based violence.
Having attended all the appearances during the hearings, Mr. Jeannot radically changed his
view of the issue of sexual and gender-based violence. The judgements were more than
educational to him, claiming that he knew some convicts who received heavy sentences.
« Already that it is an ordeal to remain inactive for a week at home, I dare not imagine life in
a prison cell for 20 years “, he said, after the pronouncement of the judgments, on November
18, 2022. “Sentences varying between 10 and 20 years in prison, it necessarily brings you
back to reason”, added Mr. Ferdinand, an administrative staff at the communal office of
Lubero, referring to the multitude of GBV cases that they have to deal with on a daily basis.

In its holistic care system, legal and judicial support is an integral part of HEAL Africa’s
multisector care package for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. This completes
the process of their care, which also includes the medical aspect, psychosocial support and
socio-economic reintegration of survivors.