Refugee Stories - Patrice from the Eastern Congo

Although continuously overlooked by the international media, the situation in the Eastern Congo is among the worst in the world. The Second Congo War, beginning in 1998, devastated the country, involved seven foreign armies, and lead to the death of 5.4 million people, making it the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II. Although peace accords were signed in 2003, fighting continues to this day, as warring rebel groups continue to rape, torture and murder unabated. It is estimated that around six million people have fled the region in the conflict broke out thirteen years ago. 

Over the past year I’ve met quite a few refugees from the Eastern Congo through my work at PASSOP. A few weeks ago I wrote down Patrice’s life story in order to help him apply for asylum in South Africa. His story is full of violence, pain and loss. It’s hard to believe that it’s all true. But it is. Perhaps what is even harder to believe, is that there are millions of others from the region who have a similar story. I’m just telling one of them. 

Patrice was born in South Kivu Province in the Eastern Congo in 1980. He grew up amongst poverty and violence. Mobutu, Congo’s (US-backed) dictator from 1971-1997, used international aid money and the country’s vast minerals to enrich himself while letting the country deteriorate into a kleptocracy. He is said to have embezzled over $4billion and kept it in Swiss bank accounts. He ordered that every bank note and public building had his picture on it. He also renamed himself Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga – which translates as ‘the all powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, shall go from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake’. (It seems I have finally found someone who has a bigger ego than my brother Yanis.)

Patrice’s, and the country’s, fortunes did not improve when Mobutu was disposed of in 1997. The fragility of the new government triggered the outbreak of the Second Congolese War in 1998. Patrice’s father was brutally murdered by Hutu rebels as the violence erupted.

A week before his 18^th birthday, and shortly after his father’s murder, rebel fighters attacked his home village. Patrice was severely beaten and forced to watch as his mother and 15-year-old sister being raped.

The violence continued until Patrice was finally forced to flee his home in 2001 to seek refuge in neighbouring Zambia. For the next six years he lived in different refugee camps in Zambia along with tens of thousands of fellow Congolese refugees.

Zambia did not offer Patrice a reprieve from the violence. In the massive refugee camps he was targeted for having a Rwandan name and accused of being a government spy. Patrice was threatened, robbed and beaten several times. On one occasion in 2007 he was beaten so viciously, his attackers broke his jaw, nose and ribs, puncturing a lung, and was left lying unconscious. He spent two weeks in hospital recovering. Although he reported the threats and the attacks to international NGOs, his warnings fell on deaf ears. The international NGOs and the UNHCR had time and again shown that they were unable to ensure his safety. He made up his mind that he would return home to South Kivu in Congo.

His hope of returning to find his family healthy was shattered when he got home and found out that his mother had fled the area, his older brother had been murdered, his younger sister had been raped by soldiers, and his family’s land was gone.

Aggression from his community forced Patrice to flee his home once again. He hid in a nearby city and slept under trees and in the local market to survive.

In 2010, Patrice found a new job at a mine in North Kivu Province. It wasn’t long before violence caught up to him there. After just a few months on the job, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Hutu rebel group, attacked the mine, killing 80 people and forcing Patrice and nine others to carry stolen supplies into the bush. Deep in the bush, Patrice was raped, along with all the others. The rebels mutilated the women’s genitals and breasts. Patrice and the other survivors were then left in the bush for dead. They spent a week surviving on fruit, and eventually forged through the forest to return to the mine. 


Concerned by the lack of response from the Congolese army officials in the community, Patrice spoke out  and suggested solutions to the local commanding army officer. For these criticisms of the army and the government, Patrice was targeted by the army. Patrice was once again forced to leave his country and return to Zambia.

Patrice at our office

However, after being refused asylum in Zambia, Patrice was deported back to the Congo and subsequently arrested by state security on June 20th. Luckily, he managed to escape jail after five days and decided to flee to South Africa in order to save his life. En route, he made his way through the Congo, Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique. In Mozambique Patrice was arrested for being an illegal immigrant, robbed of his money and stripped of his clothing. He was left for two days in a jail cell covered in feces before being eventually abandoned on the side of the road.

A month ago, Patrice finally made it to South Africa. After helping him apply for asylum here last week, he is now starting the long waiting process for the result of his application. But he’s safe - for the first time in a long time. 


After he finished telling me his story I told him how moved I felt, and asked him how he is doing in South Africa now. He said: "It is sometimes hard but I believe I am now out of that sphere. Since I arrived in SA my mind is quite okay. I haven't found any job, I am always just promised but never fulfilled. But I will be okay."