Young Girls at school victims of abuses and attacks in Kalemie City Tanganyika Province

Attacks on schools targeting young girls in Kalemie City, Tanganyika Province by young boys out school for sexual abuses.

Some young girls at school, at this time some men already planing how to abuse them sexually

Young girls in schools are no longer safe in Kalemie City, the most vulnerable of security and attacks are those between 12-20 years old. In the morning when they want to go to school these girls have to think twice if they are safe on roads, in most cases they have to constitute a group of five and more and move together, sometimes they have to link up with fellow students young boys and move together, it is the same when they come back from school, they still have to think twice how they will reach home, and this is their struggle every day.

These girls are victims by groups of young boys between 15 -22 years old who dropped out of school because their parents could not afford to pay the fees at secondary school, young boys from most vulnerable and poor families who did not access secondary school, and young boys from single families of orphans who did not access education even primary at all. Generally these young people do constitute themselves in a group of 5-15 people and are involved in various criminality activities in the city. Their main activity is drug abuse and other substances which affect them psychologically and make them gangs.

Since last year in 2024 Kalemie city started witnessing cases of insecurity in schools caused by these groups of young boys. They come and hide around the school as students are in their classes in the afternoon. Then immediately when learning is over and students start moving out, they attack the schools using stones, Pangas, Knives, iron bars in their hands and generally their main targets during these attacks are young boys in schools who provide alternative security measures to young girls on their way back home.

The intention of the attackers is to discourage the security of young girls on the road, so that they can easily harass, rape and sexually abuse these young girls. The boys in schools have often been an obstacle and the best way is to deal with them. In some cases during the attacks some students have sustained serious injuries, have lost their things including phones and money. And after the attack the perpetrators do disappear freely. No investigations have been done despite the facts that some among these assailants are known and easy to identify, some are even organized in groups with particular forms of leadership.

The recent school that has been victims of this was Ephata Catholic School in du Lac Division in Kalemie City. As always there is a total silence of local authorities, there is no intervention from the Police and other Security Services, and no one makes even a follow up including the Ministry of Education which has remained silent, no single word, no statement, and no visit on ground. Yet school administration has alerted about the safety of students and have received no responses.

How do we understand this phenomena?

There are efforts to encourage the education of young girls alongside young boys also and this was amplified by the Government Free Education Programme, however many of among these young people both girls and boys especially those from vulnerable communities end only at primary education if they are lucky. Girls in Kalemie City and women in general are perceived first of all as sexual objects, and their primarily role is sexual satisfaction to boys and men. And as far as sexual habits are concerned the attention is often oriented towards young girls, men generally use money in order to convince girls and that is condoned by the Society, the more young girls a man is having the more he is viewed as strong man, the more women you get the more you are valued in the society among men.  Many young girls end their dreams and the hopes for the future when they get pregnant and those who already have children are not encouraged to continue with education because they are perceived as “women” who should look after a man.

Generally women in Kalemie and other parts of the province are first of all sexual subjects and young boys are encouraged to produce children with these girls, but being in the city life habits do change and many young boys do not have money which can facilitate their relationship with girls. In such a situation, the use of force and other dissuasive strategies are the best practices.

Sexual exploitation of women and young girls are part of the reasons why authorities at various levels resort to silence because they expect young girls to cooperate with the abusers and rapists.

Conclusion

Women and young girls in this Province of Tanganyika are facing all forms of Sexual and Gender Based Violence and efforts to mitigate this are not often a priority because sexual and gender based violence are embodied in the culture, in religious beliefs, in education system and in the governance of the province. Even if there is a great need to promote education of most vulnerable community children both girls and boys especially accessing Secondary, University Education and tertiary institutions , there is also urgent need to promote the safety of young girls on roads and in their schools.

The following activities should be promoted

Activities focusing on Sexual and Gender Based Violence,

Activities of scholarships and reduction of fees to vulnerable young people,

Activities focusing on reducing violence and drugs abuses in the communities,

Activities focusing on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights,

Activities focusing on career guidance and counseling to young people,

Activities focusing on law enforcement and criminalization of sexual abuses,

Activities focusing on the education of young girls called “girl-mothers”,