Gold miners, traders, prostitutes: at nightfall, hundreds of them crowd into dismal bars in Kamituga, a mining town in South Kivu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Life in Kamituga encourages sin,” says Bitama Sebuhuni, a gold miner hospitalized after contracting mpox during unprotected sex.
He says he gave in to “the mentality of the environment”: “You can get here by being a pastor, once there, you become like everyone else”, warns the young man.
Kamituga, renowned for its gold mines, is the starting point of the epidemic which has hit the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since September, according to health authorities.
The deposits abandoned by Belgian companies in the 1990s attracted a crowd of artisanal diggers and entrepreneurs of all kinds.
Today, there are some 300,000 registered residents, double that according to local estimates, circulating in the crowded streets of the city center.
The buildings inherited from the colonial era have disappeared under a layer of dust and an amalgamation of odds and ends buildings. Gold purchasing offices, gold panning equipment and, above all, nightclubs and bars for “atmosphere”, after a hard day of work in the mines.
“When we talk about the atmosphere at home, we talk about women, prostitutes and alcohol,” explains Bitama. “I used to sleep with prostitutes, like that, without control, without protection.”
– Nightclubs –
From now on, the days seem long for Bitama in the isolation center for mpox patients built in Kamituga hospital, a green brick complex and a rare space untouched by the anarchy of the city center.
Some “20% of our patients are contaminated through sexual transmission and condoms do not protect,” explains Doctor Dally Muamba Kambaji, of the NGO Alima.
Doctors at the local hospital were the first to face the resurgence of mpox from September 2023.
“We noticed unusual dermatological lesions on the manager of a nightclub,” recalls Doctor James Wakilonga Zanguilwa.
“When we noticed that some free women in the same club started to develop similar lesions, we raised the alarm,” he continues.
The “Mambegeti” nightclub has since closed its doors but left its name to the disease. In Kamituga, prostitutes were the main vector for the spread of “Mambegeti”, the local nickname for mpox.
“Free women” roam the streets and bars. They have their own dedicated neighborhoods and even an “association”. Its members, coming from all over the region or neighboring countries, meet in a bar perched on the upper floor of a wooden house, at the end of a maze of alleys.
Named “The Wise Men’s Corner”, the establishment welcomes gold miners, traders and even a Congolese intelligence agent who monitors their comings and goings.
– Pimping –
There are around ten of them sitting on shabby sofas, around a table filled with lukewarm beers.
Blonde wig slipped under a scarf, generous makeup, false eyelashes and large golden earrings, Nicole Mubukwa does not hesitate to speak in front of the camera, in a region where prostitution is nevertheless considered a taboo.
A little publicity doesn’t hurt, in the opinion of the person concerned. Because the mpox slowed down activity.
“Since the appearance of this disease, customers have become rare,” laments Nicole.
“I was infected without knowing it and it was difficult for me, because I was unable to sleep with a man,” remembers Alice, another member of the “association”.
According to them, many infected women say nothing about their condition, to avoid a loss of income: “It’s the same thing as with AIDS, everyone hides,” she says.
Alice earns between 3,000 and 10,000 Congolese francs (between approximately 1 and 3.5 dollars) with each pass. She says she came from Bukavu, the provincial capital, where salaries are lower. And claims to have arrived of her own free will, under the watchful and uncomfortable eye of the madam’s mother, sitting nearby.
But at Kamituga hospital, another prostitute, who wishes to remain anonymous, says pimping networks trap some young women by promising them a job as a waitress in town and a free trip, before demanding that they reimburse the transportation money.
Despite the pitiful state of National Road 2 which connects Kamituga to the provincial capital, Bukavu, 180 kilometers away, the comings and goings of populations have spread the virus throughout the province of South Kivu, which has become the epicenter of the epidemic.
