Women tell the BBC about the ordeal of rape in the Monsonz prison in Juma

Warning: This article contains sad content, including rape descriptions, from the beginning.

“Tell me that if I tried to escape, he will kill me.”

Pascaline, 22, remembers the words of her raped in a prison in Juma, the largest city in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the early hours of January 27.

“I had to let her happen instead of losing my life,” Pascaline told BBC.

He was the second man who raped her in Monzens Prison. The first attack was so violent that it died.

She said that her attackers came over the wall of the men’s mass directly next to “Savina”.

“We heard noise while jumping on the water tanks. There were many of them, and we were very afraid. They were raped who were lucky without being raped.”

The chaos was spread through the prison and the surrounding city. The Rwandian -backed M23 rebels were closed to Goma, after rapid progress in the area.

Most prison guards and city authorities had already fled. The shooting can be heard outside the prison.

Hours later, inside the complex, there was a fire – apparently by male prisoners while trying to escape.

By morning, about 4000 male prisoners erupted. But few women managed to move away. A total of 132 prisoners and at least 25 children were burned to death, according to two sources.

“At least 153 women are a worker,” the United Nations official told the BBC.

A month later, Pascaline returned to the charred dandruff in the prison complex, where the empty control tower is still standing.

She wants to tell her story and is ready to get to know her. It is also a voice for the dead.

It walks through the main courtyard of the women’s section, looks at the burned walls, scattered cooking utensils and piles of clothes. Her hand comes to her mouth in terror without words, shaking her head.

“At some point, I didn’t know what was happening anymore,” she says. “After seeing others, they die that I started collecting myself together, I would like to say that God is the one who wanted to save.”

Pascaline, onion seller, ended behind bars here when the employer accused her of theft.

Nadine, 22, returned to prison for the first time. On her mind, she cannot escape from him.

“When I sleep at night, everything I saw here is back to me. I see the dead again – like many bodies as I saw here until I came out. Instead of opening the door, they allowed us to die like animals here.”

Nadine says she was raped by two men.

“They came with alcohol,” I told the BBC. “They wanted drugs. They took me by force. They took all the women here.”

BBC cannot check the number of women who were raped on that night, among the total of 167 who have been detained.

She says Nadine is angry with the authorities – because she is primarily spending her on unpaid debts, and then failed to allow her to leave.

“I don’t think justice can be found in the Congo,” she says. “I condemn the way the government runs things.”

The government of DR CONGO – which is more than 1500 km (1000 miles) is no longer in Kinshasa – runs anything in Goma. The rebels are in full control and continue to progress in the East.

Among the piles of the ash that the prison rugs after the fire, there is a small pink sandal, which is burned on one side. Some glossy buttons shine in dirt next to them, perhaps from children’s clothing.

Prisoners were allowed to keep one of their children in prison with them. Only two children of the fire survived in prison, according to a source. Children’s prisoners – detainees in a separate block – were released earlier in the day.

The smoke and jelly that killed the most vulnerable, according to a detailed account of another 38 -year -old, who did not want to get to know. We call her Florence.

“Children began to die” when tear gas was fired in the women’s department.

“The prison was surrounded by soldiers and police who, instead of coming to put out the fire, were shooting on bullets and throwing tear gas on us,” says Florence.

“When tear gas was dropped on us, the fire became intense. Our eyes were confusing as if hot pepper was poured into them. There was no way to breathe.”

Fire and rape move at a confusion, with all aspects keen to blame another person.

Human rights groups say rape is widely used as a war weapon in Dr. Congo by both rebels and government forces M23.

However, in this case, Florence says she was female prisoners.

“You can see that they were prisoners. Some came without shoes. When they ascended on the surface of the woman’s prison, they were called the names of those who knew them. None of the attackers was armed or uniform.”

Florence says she heard “bullets flowing” outside the prison from 23:00 on the rookie, and escaped from the prisoners who were killed by the police abroad.

“If one of the prisoners went out, they shot him. When the bullets were flying, I was on my knees to beg to God to connect us from this bad situation.”

She says that some prisoners who stormed the women’s section were looking for a safer escape.

They violated one of the walls facing the outside – a place where the police were not stationed normally. But soon this gap – from the fire.

Florence saw the fire at about 04:00. Then an hour after hour, rushed from the body to the body.

“People were dying in front of our eyes. I could not calculate them. We tried to revive them by giving them water. Some women strangled the fire, as well as the gas. Some of them died because of heart attacks,” says the British Broadcasting Commission.

The Congolese authorities also blame the loss of many lives.

“The state should have opened the doors when it saw the fire or came and graduated.”

BBC called the government in Kinshasa asking to respond to what the survivors told us, but we have not yet received.

Florence says that the woman’s prison was recently opened at 11:00 – and she is not known before – and she appeared with 18 other survivors. No help was provided.

“Even the policemen we found on the road, they did not ask for the news of the prisoners, or asked whether anyone had been injured, or how we were,” she says.

By that time, rebel fighters were in parts of the city, after they entered at about 8:00. Goma was falling.

Women do not matter – inside or outside the prison.

In a tent in the land of the Guma Hospital, we meet two other survivors, a sword, 25 years old, who was withdrawn from fire by a friend.

It is located on its left side – any other very painful situation. Her right arm is greatly designed, and there are burning marks on her arm and face. She also has burns on her back. When their dressings are changed, nurses have to give morphine.

But its suffering is more than my body.

Her two -year -old daughter Esther died in prison.

“I had Esther on my back. When we wanted to escape, something fell on it. A bomb? I don’t know what. She died immediately,” I told the BBC.

She adds that Esther has just started walking and was “without sin.” Sometimes she was playing with other children in prison, but she was often beside her mother.

How did it end with a sword, a Sudanese bean seller, behind bars in an isolated prison with her daughter?

She was accused of being involved in a robbery. She says she was imprisoned without convicting her. Local sources say this is common.

You may not know the full story of what happened in the Monzens Prison. It seems that those in power are not rushed to find out.

Sifa and the other survivors who spoke to us told us that no one has contacted them to take their testimonies about the horrors of January 27 – not the rebels who control Goma now, nor the government in Kinshasa who used to operate the prison.

“No one will follow (this case),” says Seifa. “No one will be followed up. It has already ended.”

Additional reports from BBC from WiesKE Burema, Göktay Koraltan and Yvonne Khinga.