Alarming situation regarding the inaccessibility of women and girls to the right to sexual and reproductive health in the territory of Mwenga in South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo

In the mining areas of Kamituga and Lugushwa, located in the WAMUZIMU community / chiefdom in MWENGA territory, in South Kivu province, east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, there is a serious problem of sexual and reproductive health, particularly that relating to the multiplicity of cases of unsafe and unsafe abortions and their consequences, the precariousness of post-abortion care, the existence at Community level of attitudes and harmful behavior towards contraception and abortion. . These are the elements that justify the inaccessibility of the majority of girls and women who are vulnerable and marginalized to abortion-related care as a women's right. However, the two mining areas (Kamituga and Lugushwa) are overpopulated with more than 800,000 inhabitants as a result of mining activities. According to the results of a recent study conducted in March 2019 by the NGO PIFEVA in both rural and mining areas, the majority of women and girls with unsafe abortions were between 15 and 44 years of age and 47 % of pregnancies recorded in the 2014-2018 period ended with induced abortion. Frequency of abortions is higher in mining sites and centers in Bwali and Camp VI in Kamituga and in Mapale in Lugushwa where the majority of vulnerable and marginalized girls and women live only in unprotected prostitution . This situation favors the multiplicity of unwanted fat who constitute the major cause of a majority of cases of clandestine abortions, of which about three out of four abortions practiced in Kamituga and Lugushwa remain unsecured. This increases the risk of vulnerable girls and women dying as a result of an abortion. In addition, there is a prevalence of more than 4% of STIs / HIV AIDS in this part of South Kivu in eastern DR Congo.

In addition, the data available at the Kamituga General Hospital also show that more than 87% of voluntary abortions terminate with the death of girls and women who have contracted an unwanted pregnancy and who would previously be a traditional charlatane for lack of quality post-abortion care.

Socioculturally, religious beliefs and custom prevail over women's right to abortion and encourage under-estimation of abortion in both mining areas.

It should be noted that several villages within which artisanal gold mining takes place are scattered in these two areas which are difficult to reach and which are not covered by the few existing medical structures and which do not have the necessary means. to address the needs of girls and women in sexual and reproductive health, and in particular the need to manage cases of abortion.

Faced with this very difficult health context that vulnerable and marginalized women and girls from Kamituga and Lugushwa are facing in South Kivu, the NGO PIFEVA considers it important and urgent to set up a mobile health clinic offering health services. and reproductive and abortion services for this category of women and girls abandoned to their plight in eastern DR Congo.