U.N. Hears Our Story

This week, in a presentation to the UN Human Rights Council on human rights violations against women and children in eastern Congo, our January 2025 mission into the DRC to rescue children was used as a case example. The Council's rules do not allow names to be spoken aloud, but it was clear the account was ours.

On October 1, 2025, at the 35th meeting of the Council's 60th session in Geneva, member states heard reports documenting the scale of abuses in the region: mass displacement, rape used systematically as a weapon of war, the recruitment of children by armed groups, and killings and torture by both militias and security forces. UN investigators stated that some of these acts may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity.

Against this backdrop, WAL's story was placed on record. In January 2025, we crossed into the DRC to bring children to safety after their village was attacked and one of our children was shot. Though we managed to get them to a secure space, our friend and helper Kibomango was killed in the mission. But there is some comfort in knowing that the moment now stands not only as part of WAL's history, but also as part of the official international record of human rights abuses in Congo.