1. LEBANON: 100 DAYS SINCE THE EXPLOSION IN THE PORT OF BEIRUT

 

100 days since that afternoon of August 4 when the entire city of Beirut felt breathless from a devastating explosion in the port. A few days ago, in the general silence, the population reached the hundredth day of a daily life totally upset by that explosion that caused at least 220 victims and 7,000 injured. Unusable hospitals, streets destroyed, 200,000 buildings and houses affected, 178 schools damaged. Living conditions that worry even more with the arrival of winter. Precisely for this reason, INTERSOS immediately started to take action to support families, supporting them in the rehabilitation of homes, distributing essential goods and supporting them with psychosocial help paths. The trauma of the incident is still present and will be for a long time, the wound is deep and belongs to an entire city and an entire people.

 

2. CAMEROON: ATTACKS AGAINST THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN THE ANGLOPHONE REGION

 

197 and 3, two numbers that seem to say nothing. The first refers to the number of students and teachers kidnapped and the second one is the number of attacks on schools in the Anglophone area of ​​Cameroon, the same schools where people were taken, tortured and some released on ransom. Numbers recorded between October 26 and mid-November. Violence against the education system is on the rise in one of the most complex and unsafe regions of the country in equatorial Africa. It is scary to think that your son or daughter can leave the house to go to class and never come back. This tragedy is real for the families of the north-west of Cameroon, a region afflicted by an internal conflict that is causing the devastation of villages, the flight of people and an increase in displaced persons. INTERSOS knows that fear well, and is in Cameroon to monitor, detect and record cases of violence and to assist families with medical assistance and psychological support for survivors of the attacks.

 

      3. DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: ASSISTANCE TO WOMEN SURVIVORS OF VIOLENCE

 

Do you know what fistula is? It consists of a tear in the perineum, the tissues that separate the vagina from the rectum. A laceration that causes severe incontinence and that creates enormous discomfort, fear and shame in living life in community. And do you know what causes it? One of the main causes is sexual violence. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, rape is a weapon of war. In 2019 we assisted and treated 300 women with fistula in the health districts of Karisimbi, Rutshuru and Lubero, in the Kivu region. From January to September 2020, we documented 716 incidents of gender-based violence in the province of Ituri. In South Kivu, as of September 2020, the number of registered cases was 920 with 475 cases of rape. For North Kivu, 957 cases of gender-based violence have been documented as of 30 September 2020, of which 667 cases of rape. The results show that the number of cases of sexual violence is on the rise. In a few days, next November 25, is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and we at INTERSOS have decided, like every year, to report the stories of those who have survived acts of violence, harassment, abuse in different countries where we operate.