Kisangani, 24 June 2013 – Gender-based violence is common place in the territory of Banalia located in the district of Tshopo, Orientale province. This phenomenon is mostly noted in the mining areas where women's rights are constantly trampled on.

To curb this scourge, MONUSCO, the French acronym for United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has stepped up its sensitization campaigns in the area. Recently, between 11 and 16 June in Banalia, the administrative capital of the district, which bears the same name, a UN team, was joined by a delegation of local authorities made up of members of the military court, the public prosecutor's office of the high court of Kisangani and the provincial police inspection, to meet with members of local civil society organizations, as well as with representatives of the Congolese national police force, and heads of the administrative departments and schools.

Discussions were initiated around the Congolese Underage Protection Act, anti-sexual violence legal instruments, education on sexual matters in schools, and the presence of women and girls in the mining zones.

Recent reports from different local NGOs in Kisangani found that these phenomena were a result of girls dropping out of school, prostitution, debauchery, early marriage of girls as reinforced by local traditions, rape and family dislocation caused by extended absences of women from their homes while they try to earn some cash in the mines.

MONUSCO and its partners are mobilizing resources to protect women and girls in the administrative capital of the district where a special police force to protect women and children is already in place. Banalia will soon be equipped with a "peace court", following a decision from the central government.

Codjo Houegniglo/ MONUSCO