Igna, one of the few survivors from the Central African Republic

On this occasion, we learn the story of Igna, a 36-year-old woman who lives in a camp for displaced people in the Haute Kotto district, in the east of the Central African Republic.

In the early hours of September 13, members of the Patriotic Coalition for Change (CPC), forced their way into the house of Igna and her husband. “They entered the village around 3:00 in the morning, and we heard shots, so we thought they were from the Central African Armed Forces (FACA), who were on patrol, because the leader of the group had announced this door-to-door patrol, for part of the FACA,” Igna told the peasants.

“I opened the window and saw two groups of heavily armed men in vehicles pull up. I woke up my husband and told him that the FACA had started their work. He got up to open the door and as he did so he shouted, “Lord Jesus, we are dead!”

Igna’s husband realized that the men were actually rebels and not soldiers. The rebels entered the house and began to threaten them, asking for money and cigarettes. “My husband convinced them that he could take them to where they sold cigarettes. When he left, five of the attackers stayed in the house with me. That’s when one of them raped me.”

After the assault, one of the men asked Igna to take her to where they sold cigarettes. Once there, she managed to escape and hide in the bush. “He fired three shots to scare me out of hiding, but I didn’t. I stayed there until dawn until I heard my nephews calling out my name, looking for me.”

Last year, two of Igna’s brothers were killed for being Christians during an attack by the same group. She and her surviving family have sought refuge but still remain uncertain because of her faith in Christ.