‘We are all on the front line’: DR Congo’s young women rebels take on M23
Al Jazeera
Self-defence militias called the Wazalendo are taking up arms against the M23 group that’s launching attacks in DRC.
Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo – Marie Byamwungu fiddles with the overlong sleeves of her camouflage shirt, the military uniform hanging like a costume on her slight fame.
But her lips curl back into a wry smile when the 20-year-old, whose real name we are not using for security reasons, describes fierce battles between her militia group and M23 rebels, who are in the middle of an insurgency in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
“I’ve seen heavy fighting, but I am proud. I can still go to fight,” she says, sitting in a paramilitary base some three kilometres (1.9 miles) from the front lines, north of the city of Goma.
Behind her, a group of young men lounge in a pocket of shade, joking loudly while holding assault rifles loosely across their knees.
The fighters have taken up arms under the umbrella of the Wazalendo, or “patriots” in Kiswahili – local self-defence forces who say they are fighting to protect their communities from M23 attacks.
